Should the U.S. leave the World Health Organization? Yes.

Is the United States on the verge of ceding its sovereignty to the WHO? No. 

There is no question that the World Health Organization (WHO) does more harm than good and the United States should flee its grasp as quickly as possible. The WHO response to COVID-19 proves the organization is not only ineffective, but pushes policies and agendas that are harmful to American patients and our nation's well-being. For example, while initially assisting the Chinese Communist Party in suppressing details about COVID's origins and transmissibility, the WHO later promoted China's unconscionable lockdowns and other violations of human rights as measures other nations should emulate.

As the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) presciently warned over 60 years ago in our March 1955 newsletter: "the World Health Organization... is another United Nations agency... where the American taxpayers pay for most of the activities but have an exceedingly small voice in opposing the socialistic programs offered by the agency."

So it is clearly not in the best interest of the U.S. to remain the largest funder of the WHO, "providing between $400 million to $500 million each year," as reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Adding to the reasons to leave are ongoing efforts to double-down on failed WHO leadership with a proposal to create a new agreement or “treaty” that could hand international regulators more tools aimed at directing nations’ response to future events the WHO deems pandemics. In addition, the WHO continues to consider questionable amendments to existing International Health Regulations (IHR) that aim to expand WHO authority.

Many well-meaning groups that defend warn of dire consequences for medical freedom and national sovereignty.  A current U.S. senator even states that President Biden plans to “cede American sovereignty to the WHO without the Senate's advice and consent.”

These claims absolutely deserve close scrutiny. However, a closer look reveals that the current threat from the WHO is not as severe as is being stated, and is certainly less that the attack on the rights of Americans being perpetrated by our own U.S. states and federal government.

Please consider the following:

So who has stolen our rights? The WHO or our own leaders? Could it be that focusing on what the WHO is or isn’t doing is distracting Americans from fixing problems within our own borders? Is there any danger in saying that the WHO has more power than it actually does possess? If people are given the impression that the WHO dictates U.S. pandemic restrictions can our governors and federal elected officials try to plausibly deny they are truly the ones who are to blame? The answers may unfortunately be yes. That isn’t to say that the WHO proposals should be brushed aside as meaningless. But instead of possibly exaggerating what the WHO negotiations are leading to, it is past time to hold our own leaders accountable and ensure that the errors of the last few years, enabled by our own overreaching emergency powers statutes, are not allowed to be repeated (and at the same time exit the WHO).

Image: WHO