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Health Agency Calls on Trump to Reconsider Withdrawal

(Bloomberg) — The World Health Organization called on the US to reconsider a decision to leave the agency, suggesting the move could undermine global health security. 

“Together, we ended smallpox, and together we have brought polio to the brink of eradication,” the United Nations agency said Tuesday. “WHO plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans.”

A US departure would leave the WHO without its top donor, hurting an agency that plays a key role in containing contagious diseases such as HIV, polio, Ebola and is working on a recent outbreak of the lethal Marburg virus. 

The US order was among a flurry of executive actions President Donald Trump signed Monday in the Oval Office. “World Health ripped us off,” Trump said. “Everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore.” 

Based in Geneva, the WHO plays a key role in battling global health threats. It’s currently contending with outbreaks of cholera and dengue. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is in Tanzania to help coordinate a response to the outbreak of Marburg virus, a hemorrhagic fever reminiscent of Ebola.

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“The decision by the Trump administration to withdraw from WHO is highly regrettable,” Pete Baker, deputy director of global health policy at the Center for Global Development. “It undermines global health security and risks progress on critical issues like pandemic preparedness and antimicrobial resistance.” 

Toward the end of his first term, Trump tried to pull the US out of the international health body, saying that it deferred too much to the Chinese government in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak and didn’t act quickly enough to contain the disease. The move was widely criticized by both health advocates and Democratic lawmakers, who called it a political maneuver aimed at shifting blame for the administration’s disastrous response to the pandemic. 

The “WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments,” according to the White House website.

The US contributed 19% of the WHO’s revenue during the latest budget cycle, with restrictions on how the funds can be used. There could be a silver lining to its departure, according to Baker, if other member states and philanthropists stepped up and provided more flexible funding. 

“WHO plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems, and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks, often in dangerous places where others cannot go,” the agency said.

–With assistance from Sonja Wind, Naomi Kresge, Jason Gale and Ike Swetlitz.

(Updates with additional comment from WHO in last paragraph. An earlier version corrected the day of the statement.)

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

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