President Trump has signed an executive order that begins the process of withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. It was in the middle a bunch of top acts signed after being sworn in on Monday for a second term, with news ranging from immigration to another country to foreign policy to climate change.
It was the second time in less than five years that he has ordered the country to withdraw from the agency, although it is a move many scientists fear could reverse decades of gains in fighting infectious diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Experts also warn that the move could weaken the world’s defenses against new dangerous outbreaks that could cause a pandemic.
WHO received heavy criticism from Mr. Trump in 2020 its answer on the COVID-19 pandemic, which grew into a global health crisis in the last year of his first term.
The White House statement said the US would withdraw “due to the organization’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in Wuhan, China, and other global health issues, its failure to make urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from undue political influence by member states.” -WHO.”
It also accused the WHO of seeking “unreasonably heavy payments from the United States, which are far removed from the assessed payments of other countries.”
The order says Mr. Trump was sending a presidential letter to the secretary general of the United Nations to formally inform him of America’s plan to withdraw.
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