One of the many executive orders Trump signed yesterday continues a process that he started back in 2020. In July of that year, Trump sent notice that he planned to have the US withdraw from the World Health Organization. However, the US is required to give one year notice before leaving. After Joe Biden won the 2020 election, he rescinded Trump's intent to withdraw on his first day in office, Jan. 20, 2021.

Now Trump is back in the Oval Office and he's putting the WHO on notice once again. The order itself cites two reasons for the withdrawal.

The United States noticed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020 due to the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.  In addition, the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.  China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO. 

As far as mishandling of the pandemic, even the Associated Press doesn't argue the point.

WHO made several costly mistakes during the pandemic, including advising people against wearing masks and asserting that COVID-19 was not airborne. The agency only officially acknowledged last year that the virus is indeed spread in the air.

During its efforts to stop COVID-19, WHO also dealt with the biggest sexual abuse scandal i n its history, when media reports revealed that dozens of Congolese women had been sexually harassed or assaulted by health responders working to contain Ebola. The AP found senior managers were informed of some instances of sexual abuse when they occurred in 2019 but did little to stop them or punish perpetrators.

We still can't leave immediately and we have to maintain payments for the rest of the fiscal year. Also, Congress will have to weigh in before it's final, but ultimately, this is a big problem for the WHO because America is the top contributor to their budget.

As our chart shows, the United States is indeed the largest contributor to the WHO. According to the latest figures published by the organization, the U.S. donated $1.28 billion to the WHO’s budget for the 2022-2023 biennium, including $218 million in assessed contributions, $1.02 billion in voluntary contributions and $47 million in contributions to a contingency fund for emergencies. China, in comparison, contributed a total of $157 million during the same period, including $115 million in assessed contributions.

All that to say, the WHO is not happy about the announcement. Here's a portion of their response.

The World Health Organization regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization.

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...

We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe.

That all sounds nice except the WHO has not addressed the root causes of the biggest pandemic in 100 years. They eventually got a team of people into China who had to demand to be taken to Wuhan. Even then, they were not allowed into the wet market or allowed to look into China's initial response to the virus. And of course they weren't allowed into the labs where China was studying coronaviruses collected from bats prior to the outbreak. The WHO also went along with China's early denials about how the virus was being transmitted, delaying the international response. Overall it was not a great reaction by the WHO except that it must have pleased China immensely.

Trump: What is this one?

“Withdrawing from the World Heath Organization”

Trump: Ohhh pic.twitter.com/kyh9I1lXyq

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 21, 2025