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Trump Transition Team Plans Immediate Withdrawal from WHO, Expert Reveals

On the first day of his second term, members of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team are preparing to pull out of the World Health Organization, a health law expert familiar with the talks said.

Professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law Lawrence Gostin stated, “I have it on good authority that he plans to withdraw, probably on Day One or very early in his administration.”

The Financial Times cited two experts in its initial report on the plans. Former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, the second expert, was not immediately available for comment.

When Reuters asked the Trump transition team for comment, they did not immediately reply.

In line with Trump’s long-standing criticism of the UN health agency, the plan would further distance Washington from global pandemic efforts and represent a significant change in US global health policy.

Trump has nominated a number of the organization’s detractors for high-level public health positions, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic running for secretary of Health and Human Services, which regulates all of the main US health agencies, including the FDA and CDC.

Trump started the one-year withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020, but his successor, Joe Biden, changed his mind six months later.

According to Trump, the agency did not hold China responsible for the early COVID-19 outbreak. He has referred to the WHO on numerous occasions as a Beijing puppet and promised to reroute US funding to domestic health projects.

A WHO spokesperson declined to comment directly but directed Reuters to remarks made by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, during a press briefing on December 10 when he was asked if he was worried that the Trump administration would leave the organization.

The WHO should allow the United States time and space to adjust, Tedros stated at the time. Additionally, by May 2025, he expressed confidence that states could finalize a pandemic agreement.

Opponents caution that a US withdrawal might jeopardize emergency response and disease surveillance networks around the world.

China would take the US’s place in the global health arena as it lost its clout and influence. I cannot fathom a world without a strong WHO. However, Gostin stated that a US withdrawal would seriously weaken the agency.

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