The U.S. has officially completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, HHS and the Department of State announced on Thursday.
The U.S. has officially completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Trump administration announced on Thursday.
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.
A senior HHS official said on Thursday that the WHO “strayed from its core mission and has acted contrary to the U.S. interests in protecting the U.S. public on multiple occasions.”
The HHS focused much of its critique on the WHO’s actions during the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that it delayed its response in declaring COVID-19 to be a global health emergency, and saying the organization unfairly criticized Trump for actions such as shutting down travel from certain foreign countries during the early days of the pandemic.
The HHS also argued that other countries, such as China, have been contributing less monetarily than the U.S. and that there has never been an American director-general of the WHO despite the amount of money the U.
