Trump Withdraws US from WHO Hours After Taking Office, Says Global Health Agency Mishandled Covid-19- wna24

Washington: The United States will leave the World Health Organisation, President Donald Trump announced on Monday, saying that the global health body botched the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health disasters. 

Trump Withdraws US from WHO 

Trump also said the WHO had failed to act independently of the “inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” and demanded “unfairly onerous payments” from the United States that were disproportionate to the sums supplied by other, larger countries, including China. 

“World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said at the signing.

The action implies that the United States will exit the United Nations’ health organisation in 12 months and will no longer contribute financially to its activities. The United States is by far the WHO’s largest financial donor, accounting for approximately 18% of its total funding. The WHO’s most current two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion.

Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO is not unexpected. He took steps to quit the body in 2020, during his first term as president, accusing the WHO of aiding China’s efforts to “mislead the world” about the origins of COVID.

WHO, however, denies the allegation and says it continues to press Beijing to share data to determine whether COVID emerged from human contact with infected animals or due to research into similar viruses in a domestic laboratory.