Trump administration sends letter withdrawing U.S. from World Health Organization over coronavirus response - The Washington Post

The Trump administration has begun the process of withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization, a move that could hurt the U.N.

The notice of withdrawal, effective July 6, 2021, was sent Monday to United Nations Secretary General António Guterres.

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for Guterres, said the secretary general was “verifying with the World Health Organization whether all the conditions for such withdrawal are met.”.

It is not clear whether the president can pull the United States out of the organization and withdraw funding without Congress.

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said Tuesday that, if elected, he would immediately rejoin the organization and “restore our leadership on the world stage.”.

A group of more than 700 experts on global public health and law on June 30 called on Congress to push back against the plan, warning that “cutting funding to the WHO during a global pandemic would be a dangerous action for global health and U.S.

The letter, which was signed by former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the executive director of the American Public Health Association, the president of the National Academy of Medicine, and university presidents and deans, said a U.S.

The United States helped shape the WHO and U.S.

The United States makes mandatory payments to maintain its membership in the WHO in addition to larger voluntary donations.

ambassador who served as assistant secretary for global affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services until 2017.

In the early days of the outbreak, Trump praised both China and the World Health Organization for their handling of the crisis.

In April, he announced that he was freezing all new funding to the organization.

In May, he tweeted a sprawling, four-page letter that laid out his case and warned that the United States would withdraw unless the organization reformed.

But it is not clear how the United States pulling out of the organization challenges Beijing.

A State Department spokesperson said Tuesday that the process of scaling down engagement with the WHO is already underway but seemed to leave open the possibility of working with the organization in the future.