US completes exit from WHO, rules out rejoining under Trump order
Washington ends funding and rules out rejoining WHO, citing failures during the COVID-19 pandemic and saying it will work directly with countries on public health priorities
The United States formally exited the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday (January 22), following a year of warnings that the move would damage public health in the US and worldwide, saying the decision was driven by what it called failures in the UN health agency’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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President Donald Trump had notified the WHO of the US decision to quit on the first day of his presidency in 2025 through an executive order. A press release from the US Health and State Departments said Washington will now engage with the WHO only in a limited manner to complete the withdrawal process.
“We have no plans to participate as an observer, and we have no plans of rejoining,” a senior government health official said. The US added that it intends to work directly with individual countries, instead of through an international body, on disease surveillance and other public health priorities.
Under US law, the country was required to give one year’s notice and clear all outstanding dues, estimated at about $260 million, before exiting. However, a US State Department official argued that the statute does not make payment of outstanding fees a precondition for withdrawal. “The American people have paid more than enough,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email earlier on Thursday.
The Department of Health and Human Services said in a document released the same day that the government had ended its funding contributions to the WHO. Trump had used his authority to pause the future transfer of any US government resources to the agency, with an HHS spokesperson saying the organisation had cost the US trillions of dollars.
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Witnesses said the US flag had been removed from outside the WHO headquarters in Geneva on Thursday.
In recent weeks, the US has also moved to withdraw from several other United Nations bodies, with some warning that Trump’s recently launched Board of Peace could weaken the UN as a whole.
Several critics of the WHO have floated the idea of setting up a new agency to replace it, although a proposal document reviewed by the Trump administration last year instead recommended that the US push for reforms and greater American leadership within the WHO.