CNN
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President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization, a significant decision that drew criticism from public health experts on his first day back at the White House.
Trump has long criticized the United Nations health agency and its administration. officially began a withdrawal from the WHO in July 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread. But four years ago, Joe Biden, then president stopped the United States’ exit from the body responsible for coordinating the international response to health emergencies in one of its first actions after taking the White House.
The text of Monday’s executive order cites the organization’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to enact urgent reforms, and its failure to demonstrate its independence from inappropriate political influence. of WHO Member States”, as reasons for the American withdrawal.
“This is a significant issue,” Trump told an aide as he began signing the executive order, highlighting his 2020 decision and his belief that the United States was paying too much money to the organization compared to other countries. In 2020, Trump also repeatedly accused the organization of helping China cover up the origins of Covid-19 and enabling its spread.
CNN has contacted the WHO for comment.
While lawmakers from both parties criticized the WHO in 2020 when Trump first decided to withdraw, many decried the president’s decision to withdraw during a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic. Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, called it a “truly senseless act” at the time. And retired Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander — then chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — said he disagreed with Trump’s decision.
Dr. Ashish Jha, who served as White House Covid-19 response coordinator under the Biden administration, called Trump’s decision a withdraw from WHO during his second term, a “strategic error”.
“The WHO is a pretty essential organization – and with the US withdrawing, it creates a policy vacuum that only one country can fill – and that is China,” Jha said in an interview with CNN on Monday .
He predicted that China would join the organization in the absence of American funding and leadership, which could, in turn, “give China more political influence around the world.”
Lawrence Gostin, a professor of public health law at Georgetown University, said in a statement post on that Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO is “the most significant of all” Trump’s executive actions Monday.
“This is a cataclysmic presidential decision. The withdrawal is a serious wound for global health, but an even deeper wound for the United States,” he added.
Jha warned that WHO’s withdrawal weakens the organization because it relies heavily on American personnel and expertise, particularly in tracking global flu.
Trump’s executive action calls on the secretary of state and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to “suspend the future transfer of any funds, support, or resources from the United States Government” to the WHO. However, it takes a year to completely withdraw from the body, and the United States has an obligation to continue funding it for a year.
“But who will enforce this obligation? Will Donald Trump allow himself to be intimidated by global standards in this area? » asked Jha.
Gostin, who also holds the O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law at Georgetown Law, said in a subsequent message that the action is “riddled with legal and factual errors.”
“Trump is not waiting a year as Congress demanded. He is unraveling U.S. engagement and funding. It is illegal and a serious strategic error,” he added.
CNN’s Jack Forrest and Meg Tirrell contributed to this report.