UNITED STATES: Global Reactions Trail Trump's Executive Order to Exit World Health Organization
"World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It's not going to happen anymore." Crying foul with those words, the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump has signed an executive order for the US to officially exit the World Health Organization where it is acclaimed the biggest financial partner.
Israel Adeleke, Olufemi Orunsola
OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News reports as gathered that the newly elected president of the United States, Donald Trump, has given a shocking order which got many international organizations, prominent individuals, and nations talking this week when he announced that the US will leave the world Health Organization.
OTN News further reports that the president who signed this order shortly after his inauguration to a second term, explained that the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
According to him, "WHO had failed to act independently from the "inappropriate political influence of WHO member states" and required "unfairly onerous payments" from the U.S. that were disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.
He added, "World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It's not going to happen anymore."
Trump's order also said the administration would cease negotiations on the WHO pandemic treaty while the withdrawal is in progress.
U.S. government personnel working with the WHO will be recalled and reassigned, and the government will look for partners to take over necessary WHO activities, according to the order.
Furthermore, the government will review, rescind, and replace the 2024 U.S. Global Health Security Strategy as soon as practicable, the order said.
However reacting to this new move the WHO said on Tuesday that it regretted the move from its top donor country.
"We hope that the United States will reconsider, and we really hope that there will be constructive dialogue for the benefit of everyone, for Americans but also for people around the world," WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.
OTN News observes that the move sets a 12-month notice period for the U.S. to leave the United Nations health agency and stop all financial contributions to its work.
OTN News also observes that the United States is by far the WHO's biggest financial backer, contributing around 18% of its overall funding.
According to several experts both inside and outside the WHO, the U.S. departure is likely to put at risk programs across the organization, notably those tackling tuberculosis, the world’s biggest infectious disease killer, as well as HIV/AIDS and other health emergencies.
A professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, Lawrence Gostin, said "This is the darkest day for global health I’ve ever experienced, Trump could be sowing the seeds for the next pandemic."
Also, the chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mark Suzman, whose organisation is the next-largest donor to the WHO, although most of that funding goes to polio eradication, said on X that the foundation would continue to make the case to strengthen not weaken the WHO.
The next-largest state donor in terms of combined mandatory fees and voluntary contributions is Germany, which accounts for around 3% of the WHO's funding.
Germany's health minister said on Tuesday Berlin hoped to talk Trump out of the move while the European Union voiced concern.
When asked about Trump's decision, China's foreign ministry told a regular press briefing on Tuesday that the WHO's role in global health governance should only be strengthened, not weakened.
"China will continue to support the WHO in fulfilling its responsibilities, and deepen international public health cooperation," said Guo Jiakun, a ministry spokesperson.
However OTN News recalls that Trump's withdrawal from the WHO is not unexpected as he had taken 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, vigorously 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 local laboratory.
Under U.S. law, leaving the WHO requires a one-year notice period, and the payment of any outstanding fees. Before the U.S. withdrawal could be completed last time, Joe Biden won the presidential election and put a stop to it on his first day in office on Jan. 20, 2021.
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