Unchartered territory for WHO if Trump withdraws US membership | World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) can look forward to lean years if the US withdraws membership under the new Trump administration. Such a retreat, promised on first day by Donald Trump’s new administration, would effectively cut the multilateral agency’s funding by a fifth.

The severe cut would be uncharted territory for the WHO, potentially limiting public health work globally, pressuring the organization to attract private funding and opening an opening for other countries to influence the organization. Other countries are not expected to cover the funding loss.

WHO works to improve the health of millions of people globally—from working to eradicate polio and tuberculosis to coordinating US HIV and AIDS prevention efforts in Africa.

“There are many influential people around him who say he will announce the withdrawal on day one in office,” said Lawrence Gostin, a global health law expert at Georgetown University who opposes the US withdrawal from the WHO. “The threat is real, it’s tangible, and it’s probable.”

The WHO has declined to comment on any preparations for such a move.

At a press conference on Thursday, a WHO spokesman, Dr. Margaret Harris, to reporters: “This is a government in transition and as a government in transition they need time and space to make their own decisions, to make that transition. And we will not comment further.”

That same day, the WHO issued an “emergency appeal” for funds, citing the threats of climate collapse and conflict to world health. In addition, the WHO held its first ever “investment round” in May 2024 and pledged to use the financial commitment of member states to save 40 million lives through 2028.

A withdrawal of US funding would also put pressure on the WHO Foundation to make up the shortfall. The independent Swiss entity was established during the pandemic to raise funds from “non-state actors”, including wealthy individuals and companies. The fund was announced in May 2020, the same month the president-elect last threatened to withdraw US funding from the WHO.

“WHO plays a critical role in global health security, disease outbreaks and eradication, international emergencies and mobilizing global cooperation,” Anil Soni, CEO of the WHO Foundation, said in a statement.

“The organization is critical to protecting U.S. business interests worldwide. Its programs in disease surveillance, outbreak response, and pandemic preparedness help prevent disruptions to supply chains, international markets, and trade. No other organization has the capacity and bandwidth to coordinate international rapid response efforts, to to share medical research and innovation and to disseminate critical intelligence worldwide.”

Former WHO Foundation donors include global food giant Nestlé, makeup company Maybelline and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The foundation has granted anonymity to some donors, a practice which academics criticize which makes it difficult to spot conflicts of interest.

An arm of the United Nations, the United States helped found the WHO in 1948 through a joint resolution of Congress. The US remains its biggest funder, providing approx 22% of all the assessed contribution of the member states. The United States is the only member state that can withdraw from the agency.

The USA gave 1.2 billion USD to WHO in 2023 – a fraction of the federal government $6.1tn budget and about what Joe Biden used in one round debt consolidation for student loans in 2024.

Although the United States is legally required to give written notice of intent to withdraw a year before any action is taken, legal experts worry that WHO funding could practically disappear almost overnight.

Trump’s renewed effort to withdraw funding and support from the WHO was first reported in December – one of many potential Day-1 acts. Like much of Trump’s health policy agenda, the pandemic is haunting the promise. Trump argued that the WHO was too deferential to the Chinese government during the pandemic and announced that he would withdraw the US in May 2020.

“The world is suffering now as a result of the abuses of the Chinese government,” Trump said in a Rose Garden speech in May 2020 announces his plan to retire. “Countless lives have been taken and deep economic hardship has been inflicted across the globe.”

Trump’s decision was doomed when Biden won the 2020 election and promptly reversed course. Gostin sees no such reprieve in the incoming administration.

“This time he has four years to reach this goal,” Gostin said.

Resentment against the WHO has simmered in Republican circles since the pandemic. Some conservatives blame the agency for threatens US sovereignty in a new pandemic treaty which seeks to distribute vaccines equally around the world. The first Covid-19 vaccine was released in the United States in December 2020. Much of the Global South lacked vaccines for years afterwards, even as rich countries stored doses.

Ironically, legal experts worry that a US withdrawal from the WHO would leave an open door to the influence of the Chinese government, a country Trump views as one of the US’s main global rivals.

Experts say a withdrawal from the WHO could also harm US national security interests by cutting off access to programs such as pandemic preparedness and seasonal influenza strain sequencing (used to develop annual flu shots).