Trump administration sends letter withdrawing U.S. from World Health Organization over coronavirus response

The Trump administration has begun the process of withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization, a move that could hurt the U.N. agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and reshape public health diplomacy.

The notice of withdrawal, effective July 6, 2021, was sent Monday to United Nations Secretary General António Guterres. Under the terms of a joint resolution passed by Congress in 1948, the United States must give a year’s notice and pay its debts to the agency to leave.

Trump’s push to withdraw in the middle of a pandemic has alarmed health specialists and put America at odds with traditional allies.

A group of more than 700 experts on global public health and law on June 30 called on Congress to push back against the plan, warning that “cutting funding to the WHO during a global pandemic would be a dangerous action for global health and U.S. national interests.”

The letter, which was signed by former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the executive director of the American Public Health Association, the president of the National Academy of Medicine, and university presidents and deans, said a U.S. pullout “will likely cost lives, American and foreign.”

The United States helped shape the WHO and U.S. officials still fill key roles there. Pulling American expertise and money will diminish that influence. It could also hit ongoing health initiatives, particularly in the developing world.