The United States will exit the World Health Organization, President Donald Trump said on Monday, saying the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.<\/p>\n
Trump said the WHO had failed to act independently from the \u201cinappropriate political influence of WHO member states\u201d and required \u201cunfairly onerous payments\u201d from the U.S. that are disproportionate to the sums provided by other, larger countries, such as China.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorld Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It\u2019s not going to happen anymore,\u201d Trump said at the signing.<\/p>\n
The move means the U.S. will leave the United Nations health agency in 12 months\u2019 time and stop all financial contributions to its work. The United States is by far the WHO\u2019s biggest financial backer, contributing around 18% of its overall funding. WHO\u2019s most recent two-year budget, for 2024-2025, was $6.8 billion.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s withdrawal from the WHO is not unexpected. He took steps to quit the body in 2020, during his first term as president, accusing the WHO of aiding China\u2019s efforts to \u201cmislead the world\u201d about the origins of COVID.<\/p>\n
WHO vigorously denies the allegation and says it continues to press Beijing to share data to determine whether COVID emerged from human contact with infected animals or due to research into similar viruses in a domestic laboratory.<\/p>\n
Source: Reuters
\n–Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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