UN’s health agency chief reacted to Washington’s reasons for withdrawing from the World Health Organization, saying the US criticism of the WHO is “untrue”.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that US announcement this week that it had formally withdrawn from the WHO “makes both the US and the world less safe”.
And in a post on X, he added: “Unfortunately, the reasons cited for the US decision to withdraw from WHO are untrue.”
He said: “WHO has always engaged with the US, and all Member States, with full respect for their sovereignty.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a joint statement Thursday that Washington had formally withdrawn from the WHO.
They accused the agency, of numerous “failures during the Covid-19 pandemic” and of acting “repeatedly against the interests of the United States”.
The WHO has not yet confirmed that the US withdrawal has taken effect.
US exits WHO
The United States officially withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) over the agency’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and its “ongoing lack of reform, accountability, & transparency.”
President Donald Trump announced right after taking office last year that America would end its 78-year-old commitment.
“The WHO delayed declaring a global public health emergency and a pandemic during the early stages of COVID-19, costing the world critical weeks as the virus spread,” federal officials said in a release.
“During that period, WHO leadership echoed and praised China’s response despite evidence of early underreporting, suppression of information and delays in confirming human-to-human transmission,” the release read. “The organization also downplayed asymptomatic transmission risks and failed to promptly acknowledge airborne spread.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized WHO in a joint statement, saying the organization “pursued a politicized, bureaucratic agenda driven by nations hostile to American interests.”
