By Maggie Fick and Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Members of President Donald Trump's transition team are laying the groundwork for the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization on the first day of his second term, according to a health law expert familiar with the discussions.
“I have it on good authority that he plans to resign, probably on Day One or early in his administration,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO's National Collaborating Center and Global Health (NS:) Law.
The Financial Times was the first to report on the plans, citing two experts. A second expert, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, was not immediately available for comment.
Trump's transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The plan, which is consistent with Trump's long-standing criticism of the UN health agency, would mark a dramatic shift in US global health policy and isolate Washington from international efforts to combat the pandemic.
Trump has appointed many critics of the organization to top public health positions, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who is running for the position of secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees all US health agencies including the CDC. The FDA.
Trump began a year-long process to withdraw from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.
Trump denied that the agency failed to hold China responsible for the early spread of COVID-19. He also called the WHO a puppet of Beijing and vowed to roll back US contributions to domestic health initiatives.
A WHO spokesman declined to comment directly but referred Reuters to comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a Dec.
Tedros said at the time that the WHO should give the US time and space for change. He also expressed confidence that the countries could conclude an agreement on the pandemic by May 2025.
Critics warn that a US withdrawal could undermine global disease surveillance and emergency response systems.
“The US would lose its influence and influence on global health and China would fill the vacuum. I can't imagine a world without a strong WHO. But the withdrawal of the US will greatly weaken the agency,” said Gostin.