President Trump acted swiftly on Monday by severing the United States’ (US) relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), a move that will undermine the country’s position as a global health leader and make it harder for the organization to fight the next pandemic.
In an order announced eight hours after being sworn in, Donald Trump cited several key reasons for the withdrawal, including its mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic and its failure to adopt urgent health reforms.
He added that the US bears an unfair burden as a leading country and sees China pay less.
The move is not surprising, as President Trump criticized the WHO in 2020 over its approach to the Corona virus outbreak and threatened to overfund the US.
Now, Trump 2.0 is taking formal steps to withdraw from the agency.
The impact of the move would be that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would not have access to global data as China characterized the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus in 2020.
Lawrence O. Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University who helped negotiate the deal, said that the US withdrawal from the WHO would be a “sore wound” to public health but a deeper blow to America’s national interests and national security.
