President Donald Trump’s plan to exit the WHO alarms health leaders

Some healthcare leaders are warning that President Donald Trump’s plan to pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization raises the risks of Americans suffering from more diseases.

President Trump has issued an order to pull the United States out of the World Health Organizations. Healthcare leaders say the move would make the U.S. less safe and raises the risk of outbreaks becoming more widespread.

Trump issued an executive order on Monday, his first day as the 47th president, to withdraw from the WHO. He issued a similar order late in his first term, but President Biden reversed it.

Now, Trump is forging ahead to begin the year-long process of getting out of the United States health agency that fights pandemics and works to improve health globally. Trump argues that America is shouldering too much of the costs of the organization, and he’s also been critical of what he viewed as the WHO’s passivity involving China in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tom Frieden, the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection, spoke out against the move to leave the WHO.

“We cannot make WHO more effective by walking away from it. The decision to withdraw weakens America's influence, increases the risk of a deadly pandemic, and makes all of us less safe,” he wrote in a post on X.

In a video, Frieden said, “The World Health Organization is essential for the health of the U.S. and the world. It's the only organization that makes it possible to track deadly health threats in every single country of the world. It's the only organization that provides a place for countries around the world, even if they hate each other or are political rivals, to think of a way forward against our common enemies, things like viruses and bacteria, cancers, heart disease.”

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In an op-ed published by The Washington Post, Richard Conniff and Lawrence O. Gostin wrote that getting out of the WHO will expose more Americans to disease and could lead to the return of childhood diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, polio and other diseases.

“Withdrawing U.S. support will force the WHO to scale back on childhood immunizations, probably leading to a sharp increase in sickness and death,” Conniff and Gostin wrote. “With vaccine coverage lagging in the United States, it will also expose American children to diseases we once consigned to history.”

They also argue that it will make it harder to stop future pandemics. Conniff is the author of “Ending Epidemics: A History of Escape From Contagion,” and Gostin is director of the WHO Collaborating Center for National and Global Health Law.

The WHO issued a statement expressing its disappointment that the U.S. is planning to leave the organization, which includes 194 member nations. The U.S. was one of the WHO’s founding members in 1948.

“WHO plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems, and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks, often in dangerous places where others cannot go,” the organization said in a statement.

The WHO also said it has implemented reforms over the past seven years to improve accountability and its effectiveness. The U.S. is the biggest contributor to the organization, contributing 18% of its funding, according to Reuters. The WHO’s two-year budget for 2024-25 was $6.8 billion.

“We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe,” the WHO said.

Ashish Jha, MD, who served as the White House COVID-19 response coordinator under President Biden, said he was disappointed by the move to leave the WHO, even as he acknowledged its shortcomings. In a post on X, Jha that the WHO “is an essential if flawed organization.”

“We should use our leverage to make it better,” Jha wrote. “America alone is not America First.”

Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, told Science that the WHO does work that isn’t done by anyone else, including tracking and responding to outbreaks of Ebola. He argues collaborative data collection and sharing helps reduce global threats and would help protect America, and he warned that China would gain more sway over the organization if the U.S. leaves.

“If your true concern is that WHO is captured by China, then removing the U.S. from the equation just seals the deal,” Konyndyk told Science.

Peter Jay Hotez, MD, director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital, says Trump’s move to leave the WHO isn’t surprising, but it’s ill-timed with the acceleration of pathogens such as H5N1, the bird flu. “My view: this will weaken our nation’s biosecurity/pandemic preparedness,” he said.

Frieden argued that the Trump administration should consider America’s own self-interest in staying with the organization.

“A weaker World Health Organization means a less safe United States,” Frieden said. “If we walk away from the World Health Organization, we're walking away from our own best interests in keeping America safe and healthy.”