President Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization will make it harder to share disease intelligence, experts say, and will force the Switzerland-based group to deal with the mismatch in member donations.
The withdrawal of WHO’s biggest funder could compel member states to grapple with how COVID-19 broke out and whether the organization fumbled the response because it was too cozy with Beijing, a grievance outlined in Mr. Trump’s Day 1 executive order.
The order suspended payments, but the U.S. must, under law, give one year’s notice before revoking its membership.
“I think that that is an opening for the other member states and WHO to address the complaints he has outlined here,” said Brett D. Schaefer, the Jay Kingham senior research fellow in international regulatory affairs at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The WHO is the public health arm of the United Nations. Its decision-making assembly has 194 member states and is scheduled to meet in May in Geneva, where it may scramble to meet Mr. Trump’s demands and keep the U.S. in the group.
“I still think we should contribute to the [WHO], but we should leverage our contribution. Say, ‘If you want us to continue giving you money, we expect changes in the way you do things,’” said Jeffrey Singer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a think tank promoting individual liberty.
Founded in 1948, the WHO played a key role in eradicating smallpox by 1980 and stamping out Ebola in recent African outbreaks, including remote parts of war-torn Congo.
It supports immunization efforts worldwide and provides technical guidance for emerging crises such as Zika and mpox, formerly known as monkeypox. It has also offered health aid to civilians caught in the war in the Gaza Strip.
The U.S. is a founding member and the largest donor to the WHO.
Experts say Mr. Trump’s decision comes with risks. The U.S. will not be looped in on WHO-collected data, such as the genetic sequence of the coronavirus that guided the early development of diagnostics and vaccines for COVID-19.
“Leaving the WHO will leave the U.S. without full situational awareness of infectious disease outbreaks that are occurring globally. It will hamper the ability of the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] to be most effective in global health and will likely only increase Chinese influence on the organization,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
He said efforts to scrutinize the coronavirus’ origins in China will “likely falter” and Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province, will continue to be excluded from the organization.
William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University, said the U.S. supports WHO for humanitarian reasons. As a nation wealthy enough to support those less prosperous, it relies on the organization as a radar system “that alerts us to what’s going on.”
“It’s in our own interest [to participate] because we know that we live in a very global village. We’re all tied together. Viruses don’t need passports. What’s over there can be over here very quickly,” he said, and the WHO could find ways to improve. “Is it ideal? No, there are few things in the world that are ideal.”
Mr. Trump’s withdrawal stems from bitterness over the organization’s handling of COVID-19 and the financial imbalance between contributions from the U.S. and populous countries such as China, where the coronavirus emerged.
“The WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments,” the order says.
The WHO’s budget portal says the U.S. contribution was assessed at $260 million — akin to member dues, scaled to national income and population — compared with $175 million from China for the 2024-2025 budget cycle.
Factoring in voluntary contributions from countries and private organizations, the U.S. is set to contribute $958 million, compared with China’s $203 million.
The U.S. contributes about 16% of the organization’s budget.
Mr. Trump’s order says the U.S. must pause any transfer of U.S. government funds to the WHO. It reflects Mr. Trump’s view that too many countries live off American largesse while U.S. citizens receive little in return.
“We will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first,” Mr. Trump said in his inaugural address Monday.
The WHO said it hopes the U.S. will reconsider. It said the organization’s efforts around the globe have trickle-down benefits for Americans.
“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,” the organization said. “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.”
Ties between the U.S. and WHO started to fray in 2020.
WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was deferential to Beijing in the early days of COVID-19. He praised the Chinese government’s response while communist forces suppressed information from the source city of Wuhan and cracked down on citizen whistleblowers.
“We are encouraged that the steps China has taken to contain the outbreak at its source appear to have bought the world time, even though those steps have come at greater cost to China itself,” Dr. Tedros said at the Munich Security Conference in February 2020. “But it’s slowing the spread to the rest of the world.”
The organization waffled on declaring a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020 before reversing itself one week later, frustrating nations that needed to prepare.
“The United States noticed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization 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,” Mr. Trump’s executive order says.
Mr. Trump’s order requires the U.S. to recall and reassign government personnel or contractors working in any capacity with the WHO and look for partners that can perform duties previously performed by the WHO.
“There will be some disruption from this. But I think some of the comments, and some of the alarm, is exaggerated. For instance, the U.S. does not address international health issues solely through the WHO,” Mr. Schaefer said.
He said the U.S. provides tremendous support for maternal and child health through bilateral arrangements and cooperates with other alliances such as The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.
Others said it makes sense to remain engaged in the WHO to combat health scourges though the U.S. should leverage its contributions to ensure the pros outweigh the cons.
“These diseases hit Americans as well, whether they are traveling or people travel here,” Mr. Singer said. “On the other hand, [WHO officials] seemed to pander to the Chinese, the organization has been politicized — much as United States domestic health organizations have been politicized.”
Some liberals said Mr. Trump was pulling out of the WHO at the worst time.
“Trump just removed the US from the World Health Organization while we’re seeing increased concern over bird flu. Congratulations America! You elected an absolute moron,” Olivia Julianna, a Texas-based activist and strategist, said on X.
Mr. Trump threatened to pull the U.S. out of WHO in 2020, so his recent order isn’t surprising. President Biden reversed Mr. Trump’s withdrawal effort, though Monday’s order revoked Mr. Biden’s decision.
“Oooh, that’s a big one,” Mr. Trump said from the Oval Office when he was handed the executive order to sign.
Mr. Trump repeated his complaint about the amount of money the U.S. paid to the organization compared with other members.
“World Health ripped us off,” he said. “Everyone rips off the United States. That’s it. It’s not going to happen anymore.”
• Mallory Wilson contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.