US President Donald Trump on Tuesday formally started the withdrawal of the US from the WHO, making good on threats to deprive the UN body of its top funding source over its response to COVID-19.
Public health advocates and Trump’s political opponents voiced outrage at the departure from the Geneva, Switzerland-based body, which leads the global fight on maladies from polio to measles and mental health — as well as COVID-19, at a time when cases have again been rising around the world.
The US has sent a formal notice to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a US Department of State spokesperson said.
The withdrawal of the key WHO founding member is effective in one year: July 6 next year.
Former US vice president Joe Biden, Trump’s presumptive Democratic opponent in November’s presidential election, said that he would immediately end the pullout if he won the White House.
“Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health,” Biden wrote on Twitter. “On my first day as President, I will rejoin the WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus responded to the news with a one-word post on Twitter — “Together” — as he linked to a discussion by US health experts on how leaving the global body could impede efforts to prevent future pandemics.
In line with conditions set when the WHO was set up in 1948, the US can leave within one year, but must meet its remaining assessed financial obligations, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
While many public health advocates share some criticism of the WHO, they question what other options the world body had other than to work with China, where COVID-19 was first detected late last year.
The anti-poverty campaign ONE said that the US should work to reform the WHO, not abandon it.
“Withdrawing from the World Health Organization amidst an unprecedented global pandemic is an astounding action that puts the safety of all Americans, the world at risk,” it said.
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