The reason why President Trump withdrew the US from WHO

In an executive order issued about 8 hours after taking office, the new US President gave a series of reasons for this decision. He said that the World Health Organization (WHO) “wrongly responded to Covid-19” and “did not adopt the necessary reforms” to handle this pandemic. He commented that the WHO asked the US to “pay unfairly high costs”, while China’s payment was less. The decree also states that WHO continues to request the US to pay excessive amounts of money, disproportionate to payments made by other countries.

Theo Washington Postthis move was not unexpected. Trump has criticized the WHO since 2020, disagreeing with the organization’s approach to Covid-19 and threatening to stop US aid. In July 2020, Mr. Trump officially took steps to withdraw from WHO. But after losing the race for the White House, this process was left open. On his first day in office, January 20, 2021, former President Joe Biden blocked this decree.

What does leaving the WHO mean for America?

Leaving the WHO means the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not have access to the global data that this organization provides. This is an important part to create the annual seasonal flu vaccine. When China described the gene sequence of Covid-19 in 2020, the country also announced the information to WHO, which the United Nations health agency then shared with other countries.

Global health experts also believe that the new order will weaken the US CDC’s ability to monitor and prevent health threats abroad. “There are places where we cannot send CDC epidemiologists, because they will not be safe,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC during the Obama administration.

American drug manufacturers also lost the support of WHO in bringing products to the world, because this organization has the function of certifying drugs, vaccines and medical devices for global use.

Recently, the United Nations health agency received a lot of criticism from conservatives when it proposed to establish a “pandemic treaty”, aimed at strengthening preparations for the next pandemic and establishing policies legally binding policy for member states. Accordingly, countries need to monitor pathogens, quickly share outbreak data, build supply chains, and produce vaccines and treatments locally. Negotiations on the treaty broke down last year.

In the US, some Republican lawmakers see the deal as a threat to sovereignty. Lawrence O. Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University who participated in negotiating the treaty, said a US withdrawal from WHO would be “a serious wound” to public health, is also “a deeper wound to US interests and national security”.

Experts say the move will weaken America’s position as a global health leader and make it more difficult to fight the next pandemic. The decision could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to the organization’s core budget. Currently the US provides about a quarter of the budget in the form of mandatory membership fees, in reality it could be more. The number has ranged from $163 million to $816 million in recent years, according to the Health Policy Research Foundation (KFF).

Loss of funding from the United States could be a barrier to WHO’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to infectious disease outbreaks and other emergencies around the world.

Established in 1948 with American help, WHO is the United Nations health agency tasked with “facing the greatest health challenges of our time and significantly improving the health of people.” in the world”. WHO provides aid to war-torn areas like Gaza, tracking emerging diseases like Zika, Ebola and Covid-19. The WHO’s annual budget is about 6.8 billion USD, of which the United States contributes a large part.

According to Mr. Gostin, it will take some time for the US to withdraw. According to a joint resolution passed by the National Assembly, if the US wants to withdraw from the WHO, it must notify one year in advance and pay its financial obligations to the organization in the current fiscal year.