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The US Exits the World Health Organization

January 27, 2026
Patrick Li

After nearly 80 years of continued membership, the US has officially completed its full withdrawal from the World Health Organization, the Trump administration announced last Thursday (January 22). It comes exactly one year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin the process of withdrawal.

The move was announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of State. Defending the withdrawal, a senior HHS official said on Thursday that the WHO “strayed from its core mission and has acted contrary to the US interests in protecting the U.S. public on multiple occasions.”

The HHS centered the majority of its criticism on the WHO’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, claiming that the organization had delayed its declaration of COVID as a global health emergency and claiming that it was unjust in its condemnation of Trump for his initial actions (shutting down travel from specific foreign countries in the early stages of the pandemic).

The HHS also argued that other countries, most notably China, had been contributing, on-net, less monetarily than the US and that there had “never been an American director-general of the WHO” despite the amount of money given.

The vast majority of public health experts have criticized the withdrawal, saying that it would put the US at a disadvantage when it comes to responding to health crises both domestically and abroad. Ronald Nahass, the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, puts it bluntly: “The US withdrawal from the World Health Organization is a shortsighted and misguided abandonment of our global health commitments. Global cooperation and communication are critical to keep our own citizens protected because germs do not respect borders.”

Nahass further said that withdrawal would hamper US efforts to surveil “emerging threats such as Ebola” or “the persistent burden of annual flu outbreaks.” He also added that the move would make matching vaccines to corresponding strains of flu more difficult.