Donald Trump withdraws US membership from WHO
Less than 24 hours of his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States of America, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order in relations to the US-World Health Organization’s relationship.
The Order withdrew US from belonging to World Health Organization despite the fact that United States of America was highly instrumental in finding and establishing the organization in 1947.
Recall that in his first tenure, he led the establishment of the executive order meant to withdraw the membership but it was unfortunately reversed by Joe Biden.
A medical practitioner and global health analyst, Kvng Jay, has used his X handle to characterize the implications of the decision to Global Health.
He said, “The WHO Just Lost Its Biggest Donor
Last year, The U.S. funded almost 1/5th of the WHO’s budget—more than any other country. Without that money, programs fighting malaria, polio, and TB are at risk.”
Talking about budget, he said,
“The WHO Operates on a Shoestring Budget.
The WHO’s $6.8 billion budget for two years is peanuts compared to what the U.S. spends on defense in just 9 days. Yet it’s responsible for global health.
This brings to fore the general underinvestment in health even in the biggest health organisation”
In China’s influence, he continued,
“China Wins Big.
By stepping away, the U.S. creates a power vacuum, and guess who’s most likely to fill it? China.
Trump accused the WHO of being too cozy with Beijing—this move hands them the keys.”
“Programs in Crisis Zones Will Suffer.
The WHO runs essential health programs in war zones and underdeveloped regions. Pulling U.S. funding means fewer vaccines, fewer treatments, and more preventable deaths.”
“U.S. Global Isolation.
Another angle to this is that this isn’t just about money—it’s also about access to global health intelligence. The WHO tracks diseases worldwide, giving member states a heads-up and benefits from that collated data.”
And many other implications of the decision.
A netizen tried the question if US is not able to generate data to track and control diseases in America.
The coming days are going to be heated. The feeling of uncertainty is high everywhere, we hope there’d be a way out after all.
