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Journalism of Courage
Soon after taking office, United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday withdrawing the US from the World Health Organisation (WHO), citing a host of reasons. “Oh, that’s a big one. They wanted us back so badly so we’ll see what happens,” he was quoted as saying, by broadcaster BBC, before signing the order.
In a first order, Trump blamed WHO for “mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic,” and the “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms.” Trump, as quoted by news agency Reuters, said the UN agency had failed to act independently from the “inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” and required “unfairly onerous payments” from the US that are disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.
The move means that the US would leave the health agency in 12 months and stop all financial contributions to its work. The US is by far the WHO’s biggest financial supporter, contributing 90 per cent of its overall funding, as per the order. The agency’s most recent two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion, the news agency reported.
Notably, on Thursday, the WHO launched its annual appeal for a $1.5 billion dollar funding to respond to health emergencies, few days ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
“World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said at Capital One Arena in Washington, where he signed a slew of executive orders in front of his supporters soon after he took oath, Reuters reported.
The order read: “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.”
“While withdrawal is in progress, the Secretary of State will cease negotiations on the WHO Pandemic Agreement and the amendments to the International Health Regulations, and actions taken to effectuate such agreement and amendments will have no binding force on the United States,” the order added.
The US is currently on the lookout for “credible and transparent partners” to assume the activities previously undertaken by the WHO.
It also revoked Executive Order 13987, signed in the first week of the Biden administration to combat the first wave of the pandemic. The White House will also replace the 2024 US Global Health Security Strategy.
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