Public health experts say the United States’ departure could cripple the WHO’s operations or leave an opening for China to assume greater control over the agency.
The United States will leave the World Health Organization on Jan. 22, 2026, the United Nations said on Thursday, after being formally notified of the decision by President Donald Trump, who has accused the agency of mishandling the pandemic and other international health crises.
The WHO is an agency of the United Nations tasked with coordinating responses to public health emergencies between nations. The United States is a founding member of the organization, which was set up in 1948 in the wake of World War II.
The United States will leave the World Health Organization, President Donald Trump said on Monday, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
Trump initially removed the U.S. from the WHO in 2020, but Biden reversed his action before it went into effect.
Donald Trump's decision will have an even greater impact on the WHO, as the US is the main funder of the UN organization. This situation is likely to complicate many health policies, including the fight against future pandemics.
As part of his blitz of executive orders, President Trump delivered on a promise to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization. The Trump White House accuses the WHO of mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic and bias toward China.
One of President Trump’s first executive orders removes the U.S. from the global health organization, which experts say is “cataclysmic.”
The Covid-19 pandemic's outbreak was five years ago, but it still reverberates through American politics. After President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the World Health Organization, it's clear that his anger toward WHO could "reshape global health," said The Washington Post.
The United States withdrawing from the World Health Organization would have a significant impact on public health programmes Africa
The initial architect of the horrific “herd immunity” mass infection policy towards the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump is picking up where he left off four years ago and escalating far further.