After 77 years, the United States has officially severed ties with the World Health Organization (WHO).
President Donald Trump, fulfilling a promise he made to the American people, completed the withdrawal on Thursday, exactly one year after signing the executive order that set the wheels in motion.
The controversial Ethiopian politician and Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, practically begged the United States to rejoin the UN-run agency after Trump signed the executive order.
Reuters reported:
According to a press release from the U.S. Health and State Departments, the U.S. will only work with the WHO in a limited fashion in order to effectuate the withdrawal.
“We have no plans to participate as an observer, and we have no plans of rejoining,” a senior government health official said. The U.S. said it plans to work directly with other countries – rather than through an international organization – on disease surveillance and other public health priorities.
The Department of Health and Human Services said in a document released on Thursday that the government had ended its funding contributions to the agency. Trump had exercised his authority to pause the future transfer of any U.S. government resources to the WHO because the organization had cost the U.S. trillions of dollars, the HHS spokesperson said.
The U.S. flag had been removed from outside the WHO headquarters in Geneva on Thursday, according to witnesses.
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