The United States is officially withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO) amid lingering doubts about how the United Nations agency handled the emergence of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, lawmakers said on July 7. The withdrawal goes into effect next year.
A WHO spokesman told The Epoch Times: “We have received reports that the US has submitted formal notification to the UN Secretary General that it is withdrawing from WHO effective 6 July 2021.”
“We have no further information on this at this stage,” he added in an emailed statement.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in May that he hoped the United States wouldn’t cut ties with the group.
He called America “a longstanding and generous friend to WHO,” adding, “We hope it will continue to be so.”
The United States was the group’s largest funder, regularly pouring hundreds of millions of dollars on an annual basis into the organization.
Trump, a Republican who is up for reelection in November, announced in May that the United States would formally terminate its relationship with WHO.
“We have detailed the reforms that it must take and have engaged with them directly but they have refused to act,” Trump said. “Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving, urgent global health needs.”
Other groups that could receive the funding include the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, an administration official said.
Trump said last month that he wasn’t reconsidering his decision, calling the WHO “a disaster.”
A State Department spokesperson told the Associated Press that the U.S. would continue to seek reform of the WHO, but referred to Trump’s June 15 response when asked if the administration might change its mind.
