President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States is withdrawing from the World Health Organization stems from the organization’s repeated failures in managing global health crises, its resistance to necessary reforms, and its subservience to undue political influence from certain member states.
As the largest financial contributor to the WHO, the U.S. provides most of the organization’s funding, amounting to more than $367 million of voluntary contributions, compared to China’s paltry sum of less than $4 million. The U.S. is also scheduled to pay out more than $260 million of assessed contributions in 2024 and 2025. This disproportionate funding, coupled with the WHO’s mismanagement, underscores why the U.S. must reevaluate its involvement with the organization entirely.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the WHO’s inadequacies on a global stage. Early in the crisis, the organization echoed Chinese Communist Party propaganda, downplaying the severity of the outbreak and delaying the declaration of a global health emergency.
