US President, Donald Trump, has ordered the exit of the United States from the World Health Organization, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
Trump, who gave the order a few hours after his inauguration on Monday, said the WHO had failed to act independently from the inappropriate political influence of its member states and required unfairly onerous payments from the U.S. that are disproportionate to the sums provided by other larger countries, such as China.
“World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore,” Trump said.
Media Talk Africa reports that the move means that the U.S. will leave the United Nations health agency in 12 months’ time and stop all financial contributions to its work.
According to several experts both inside and outside the WHO, the U.S. departure will likely put at risk programmes across the organisation.
Trump’s order said the administration would cease negotiations on the WHO pandemic treaty while the withdrawal is in progress.
According to the executive order signed by Trump, U.S. government personnel working with the WHO will be recalled and reassigned, and the government will look for partners to take over necessary WHO activities,
Trump had taken steps to quit the body in 2020, during his first term as president, accusing the WHO of aiding China’s efforts to mislead the world about the origins of COVID.
However, WHO vigorously denied the allegation, saying it continues to press Beijing to share data to determine whether COVID emerged from human contact with infected animals or due to research into similar viruses in a domestic laboratory.
