New York, USA
The White House has officially moved to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), a senior administration official confirmed Tuesday, breaking ties with a global public health body in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. has
submitted its withdrawal notification to the United Nations
Secretary General, the official said. Withdrawal requires a year's notice,
so it will not go into effect until July 6, 2021, raising the
possibility the decision could be reversed.
Senator
Bob Menendez (N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, tweeted that the administration informed Congress of the
withdrawal plans.
"To call
Trump’s response to COVID chaotic & incoherent doesn't do it justice. This
won't protect American lives or interests — it leaves Americans sick &
America alone," the senator tweeted.
The formal notification of withdrawal concludes
months of threats from the Trump administration to pull the United States out
of the WHO, which is affiliated with the United Nations. President
Trump
But public health experts and Democrats have
raised alarms that the decision may be short-sighted and could undercut the
global response to the pandemic, which has infected 11.6 million people
worldwide. The U.S. has the highest number of reported cases in the world at
nearly 3 million.
They have also argued that some of the WHO's
initial missteps can be attributed to China's lack of transparency in the early
stages of the outbreak.
“I disagree with the president’s decision," Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in a statement. "Certainly there needs to be a good, hard look at mistakes the World Health Organization might have made in connection with coronavirus, but the time to do that is after the crisis has been dealt with, not in the middle of it.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus |
The
president first froze funding for the WHO in April while his administration
conducted a review of its relationship with the entity. Weeks later, he wrote
to the WHO demanding reforms but did not specify what those reforms would be.
Trump announced at
the end of May the U.S. was "terminating" ties with
the WHO.
The move was
cheered by conservatives who had accused the WHO of harboring pro-China bias
and argued the global body was not a productive use of funds.
Critics of
the WHO have pointed to its initial assertion that the coronavirus could not be
spread via human-to-human transmission, and Trump has harped on the
organization's opposition to travel bans after he imposed one on China.
Trump and his allies have also lashed out at
the WHO for failing to stop early warning signs of the outbreak.
China first
alerted the WHO to the presence of a cluster of atypical pneumonia in the city
of Wuhan on Dec. 31 after the WHO picked up reports through its epidemic
intelligence system. But there is evidence to indicate the virus was
circulating in Wuhan as early as mid-November.
The United
States contributes upwards of $400 million annually to the WHO — making it
the group’s largest contributor — and public health experts have warned that a
suspension of funds would severely damage the organization.
The timing
of the administration's decision has drawn intense scrutiny and is likely to
spur questions about U.S. involvement in global efforts to develop a
coronavirus vaccine.
The White House has officially moved to withdraw the United States from
the World Health Organization (WHO), a senior administration official confirmed
Tuesday, breaking ties with a global public health body in the middle of the
coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S.
has submitted its withdrawal notification to the United
Nations secretary-general, the official said. Withdrawal requires a year's
notice, so it will not go into effect until July 6, 2021, raising the
possibility the decision could be reversed.
Sen. Bob Menendez
(N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
tweeted that the administration informed Congress of the withdrawal plans.
"To
call Trump’s response to COVID chaotic & incoherent doesn't do it justice.
This won't protect American lives or interests — it leaves Americans sick &
America alone," the senator tweeted.
The formal notification of withdrawal concludes months of threats from the Trump administration to pull the United States out of the WHO, which is affiliated with the United Nations.
President
Trump has repeatedly assailed the organization for alleged bias
toward China and its slow response to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.
But
public health experts and Democrats have raised alarms that the decision may be
short-sighted and could undercut the global response to the pandemic, which has
infected 11.6 million people worldwide. The U.S. has the highest number of
reported cases in the world at nearly 3 million.
They have
also argued that some of the WHO's initial missteps can be attributed to
China's lack of transparency in the early stages of the outbreak.
“I
disagree with the president’s decision," Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)
said in a statement. "Certainly there needs to be a good, hard look at
mistakes the World Health Organization might have made in connection with
coronavirus, but the time to do that is after the crisis has been
dealt with, not in the middle of it.”
The
president first froze funding for the WHO in April while his
administration conducted a review of its relationship with the entity. Weeks
later, he wrote to the WHO demanding reforms but did not specify what those
reforms would be.
Trump announced at the end of May the U.S. was
"terminating" ties with the WHO.
The move
was cheered by conservatives who had accused the WHO of harboring pro-China
bias and argued the global body was not a productive use of funds.
Critics
of the WHO have pointed to its initial assertion that the coronavirus could not
be spread via human-to-human transmission, and Trump has harped on the
organization's opposition to travel bans after he imposed one on China.
Trump and
his allies have also lashed out at the WHO for failing to stop early warning
signs of the outbreak.
China
first alerted the WHO to the presence of a cluster of atypical pneumonia in the
city of Wuhan on Dec. 31 after the WHO picked up reports through its epidemic
intelligence system. But there is evidence to indicate the virus was
circulating in Wuhan as early as mid-November.
The
United States contributes upwards of $400 million annually to the WHO
— making it the group’s largest contributor — and public health experts have
warned that a suspension of funds would severely damage the organization.
The
timing of the administration's decision has drawn intense scrutiny and is
likely to spur questions about U.S. involvement in global efforts to develop a
coronavirus vaccine.
"Abandoning
our seat at the table leaves the United States out of global decision-making to
combat the virus and global efforts to develop and access vaccines and
therapeutics, leaving us more vulnerable to COVID-19 while diminishing our
position as the leader in global health," Thomas File, Jr., president
of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in a statement.
"This decision is irresponsible, reckless, and utterly incomprehensible. Withdrawing from the @WHO in the midst of the greatest public health crisis of our lifetime is a self-destructive move. More Americans will be hurt by this careless choice," Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) tweeted.
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