Updated Jan. 21, 3:45 p.m.
In an executive order signed on the eve of his inauguration, President Trump pulled the U.S. from the World Health Organization.
Withdrawal from the United Nations health agency is possible after a one-year notice. The order called for a pause on future U.S. funding and resources to WHO. The U.S. is the largest WHO donor. Public health experts quickly condemned the move, stressing it leaves U.S. agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) without crucial surveillance data and will complicate future efforts to prevent pandemics.
WHO is the only organization that makes it possible to track health threats across the world, Tom Frieden, former director of the CDC and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department, said in a statement posted on X. “A weaker World Health Organization means a less safe United States,” he said.
The U.S. was a founding member of the organization in 1948. “American institutions have contributed to and benefited from membership of WHO,” a statement from WHO in response to Trump’s EO read. “We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe.”
The order called for the reassignment of U.S. government employees or contractors working with WHO, to identify alternative partners to step in for the role of WHO and to replace the 2024 U.S. Global Health Security Strategy. Trump previously tried to pull out of WHO in 2020, a move that was blocked by President Biden after he took office.
On Tuesday, Germany’s health minister said Berlin will try to lobby Trump out of the decision, Reuters reported. "The new U.S. president's announcement to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) is a serious blow to the international fight against global health crises," Karl Lauterbach, the health minister, said. "We will try to persuade Donald Trump to reconsider this decision.”
The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology also weighed in, cautioning that the move could undermine global health responses. "The withdrawal will impact global health security, and the lack of a coordinated effort puts all nations at risk and weakens our combined efforts to combat infections," the organization's President Carol McLay, DrPH, M.P.H., R.N., said in a statement.
The O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, based out of Georgetown University, also responded to the withdrawal. Co-faculty directors Michele Bratcher Goodwin and Lawrence O. Gostin said in a statement: "This decision risks undermining decades of progress...Without [the U.S.], the organization's ability to address global health emergencies will be significantly weakened, endangering health everywhere." As the only WHO Collaborating Center for National and Global Health Law, they added, the Institute is committed to fostering international collaboration, supporting evidence-based strategies and reaffirming the role of law as a key tool for solving critical health issues.
The order claimed WHO mishandled COVID-19, failed to adopt “urgently needed reforms” and did not show independence from “inappropriate” political influence of WHO members. The order also complained WHO demands “unfairly onerous payments” from the U.S. compared to other countries, like China, with larger populations.
Editor's Note: This story was updated with statements from the O'Neill Institute and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.