Donald Trump withdraws US from WHO: What will be the consequences?

US President Donald Trump has signed an order for the United States to leave the World Health Organisation, the UN's health agency. The move will take a year to be official.

In Short

• Donald Trump has terminated US membership of WHO
• The US has been among the biggest financial contributors to the health agency
• The US could miss out on vital information from WHO

President Donald Trump, on his Inauguration Day, January 20, announced the start of the process of ending the US membership of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The government will review, rescind, and replace the 2024 US Global Health Security Strategy as soon as practicable.

"World Health (Organisation) ripped us off," Trump, the 47th US President, said in front of reporters as he signed executive orders. He previously said that the US was paying more than China to fund the health body, and how WHO had mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic and other international health crises.

This idea of terminating the US membership is not unexpected, as it stems from 2020, when during the Covid-19 pandemic, he had repeatedly criticised WHO for acting slow and for being "owned and controlled by China."

The consequences of this event are significant, especially since the US has been a major financial contributor to the WHO since 1948. The US contributed around 18% of WHO's overall funding. Its most recent two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion.

But not only will the WHO lose its biggest donor, the US withdrawal will make Americans lose vital information from the global health agency that could add an enormous threat to the country.

"The World Health Organisation regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization. We hope the United States will reconsider, and 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," WHO said in a statement.

Not just WHO, even the US will potentially face consequences due to Trump's executive order.

The US departure could put various programmes at risk, according to several experts both inside and outside the WHO. They note that those battling tuberculosis, the world's biggest infectious disease killer, and HIV/AIDS and other health emergencies, could be at a high risk due to the exit.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - the official health agency - would lose easy access to global and critical data that the WHO provides. This move could impact American healthcare.

The WHO monitors global health threats, evaluates formulations and effectiveness of new vaccines and medications, coordinates the response to emerging health crises and ongoing issues and provides expert support to countries, especially when they face a health emergency.

During these decisions, the US will lose a seat at the table when health standards are set and disease responses are decided.

In 2020, Loyce Pace, Director of the Global Health Council, a US-based NGO, told Forbes, that leaving WHO withholding essential funds or technical support for Americans "could jeopardise polio eradication and other immunisation campaigns, not to mention work preventing or controlling infectious diseases that - left unchecked - put us at risk for yet another wave of economic and humanitarian fallout."

The move is a major setback for the World Health Organisation as many health experts have criticised Trump's belief.

Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University and director of WHO's Centre on Global Health Law, told NPR that the US withdrawal is "the most cataclysmic decision."

"(This is) a grave wound to American national interests and our national security. This will really leave our agencies, like the CDC and NIH (National Institutes of Health) flying blind," he said.

The move means the US will leave WHO in a year and stop all financial contributions to its work.

During Trump's first presidential term, he halted funding to WHO. But before a year had reached, Joe Biden took over as the President and reversed the order.

Trump's order said the administration would discontinue negotiations on the WHO pandemic treaty while the withdrawal is in progress.

US government personnel working with the WHO will be recalled and reassigned, and the government will look for partners to take over necessary WHO activities, according to the order.