- Title: Trump transition team plans immediate WHO withdrawal, expert says
- Date: 24th December 2024
- Summary: GAZA CITY, GAZA (FILE - MAY 19, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DAMAGED MEDICAL FACILITY ENTRANCE OF PALESTINIAN HEALTH MINISTRY VARIOUS OF MURAL DEPICTING FIGHT AGAINST CORONAVIRUS GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (FILE - DECEMBER 6, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIORS OF THE U.N.
- Embargoed: 7th January 2025 00:52
- Keywords: Trump UN United Nations WHO World Health Organization
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: North America,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA004912923122024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Members of Donald Trump's presidential transition team are laying the groundwork for the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization on the first day of his second term, according to a health law expert familiar with the discussions.
The Financial Times was first to report on the plans, citing two experts. The second expert, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, was not immediately available for comment.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The plan, which aligns with Trump's longstanding criticism of the U.N. health agency, would mark a dramatic shift in U.S. global health policy and further isolate Washington from international efforts to battle pandemics.
Trump has nominated several critics of the organization to top public health positions, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who is up for the post of secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees all major U.S. health agencies including the CDC and FDA.
Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.
Trump has argued that the agency failed to hold China accountable for the early spread of COVID-19. He has repeatedly called the WHO a puppet of Beijing and vowed to redirect U.S. contributions to domestic health initiatives.
A WHO spokesperson declined to directly comment but referred Reuters to comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing on Dec. 10 in which he was asked whether he was concerned that the Trump administration would withdraw from the organization.
Tedros said at the time that the WHO needed to give the U.S. time and space for the transition. He also voiced confidence that states could finalize a pandemic agreement by May 2025.
Critics warn that a U.S. withdrawal could undermine global disease surveillance and emergency response systems.
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