WHO chief asks countries to push Washington to reconsider its withdrawal

By MARIA CHENG and JAMEY KEATEN

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization main asked planetary leaders to thin connected Washington to reverse President Donald Trump’s decision to retreat from the U.N. wellness agency, insisting successful a closed-door gathering with diplomats past week that the U.S. volition miss retired connected captious accusation astir planetary illness outbreaks.

But countries besides pressed WHO astatine a cardinal fund gathering past Wednesday astir however it mightiness header with the exit of its biggest donor, according to interior gathering materials obtained by The Associated Press. A German envoy, Bjorn Kummel, warned: “The extortion is connected fire, and we request to halt the occurrence arsenic soon arsenic possible.”

For 2024-2025, the U.S. is WHO’s biggest donor by far, putting successful an estimated $988 million, astir 14% of WHO’s $6.9 cardinal budget.

A fund papers presented astatine the gathering showed WHO’s wellness emergencies programme has a “heavy reliance” connected American cash. “Readiness functions” successful WHO’s Europe bureau were much than 80% reliant connected the $154 cardinal the U.S. contributes.

The papers said U.S. backing “provides the backbone of galore of WHO’s large-scale exigency operations,” covering up to 40%. It said responses successful the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan were astatine risk, successful summation to hundreds of millions of dollars mislaid by polio-eradication and HIV programs.

The U.S. besides covers 95% of WHO’s tuberculosis enactment successful Europe and much than 60% of TB efforts successful Africa, the Western Pacific and astatine the bureau office successful Geneva, the papers said.

At a abstracted backstage gathering connected the interaction of the U.S. exit past Wednesday, WHO concern manager George Kyriacou said if the bureau spends astatine its existent rate, the enactment would “be precise overmuch successful a hand-to-mouth benignant concern erstwhile it comes to our currency flows” successful the archetypal fractional of 2026. He added the existent complaint of spending is “something we’re not going to do,” according to a signaling obtained by the AP.

Since Trump’s enforcement order, WHO has attempted to retreat funds from the U.S. for past expenses, Kyriacou said, but astir of those “have not been accepted.”

The U.S. besides has yet to settee its owed contributions to WHO for 2024, pushing the bureau into a deficit, helium added.

WHO’s enforcement board, made up of 34 high-level envoys including galore nationalist wellness ministers, was expected to sermon fund matters during its latest session, which opens Monday and is acceptable to tally done Feb. 11.

WHO’s person wants to bring backmost the US

Last week, officials astatine the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were instructed to halt working with WHO immediately.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the attendees astatine the fund gathering that the bureau is inactive providing U.S. scientists with immoderate information — though it isn’t known what data.

“We proceed to springiness them accusation due to the fact that they request it,” Tedros said, urging subordinate countries to interaction U.S officials. “We would admit it if you proceed to propulsion and scope retired to them to reconsider.”

Among different wellness crises, WHO is presently moving to halt outbreaks of Marburg virus successful Tanzania, Ebola in Uganda and mpox in Congo.

Tedros rebutted Trump’s 3 stated reasons for leaving the bureau successful the enforcement bid signed connected Jan. 20 — Trump’s archetypal time backmost successful office. In the order, the president said WHO mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic that began in China, failed to follow needed reforms and that U.S. rank required “unfairly onerous payments.”

Tedros said WHO alerted the satellite successful January 2020 about the imaginable dangers of the coronavirus and has made dozens of reforms since — including efforts to grow its donor base.

Tedros besides said helium believed the U.S. departure was “not astir the money” but much astir the “void” successful outbreak details and different captious wellness accusation that the United States would look successful the future.

“Bringing the U.S. backmost volition beryllium precise important,” helium told gathering attendees. “And connected that, I deliberation each of you tin play a role.”

Kummel, a elder advisor connected planetary wellness successful Germany’s wellness ministry, described the U.S. exit arsenic “the astir extended situation WHO has been facing successful the past decades.”

He besides asked: “What factual functions of WHO volition illness if the backing of the U.S. is not existent anymore?”

Officials from countries including Bangladesh and France asked what circumstantial plans WHO had to woody with the nonaccomplishment of U.S. backing and wondered which wellness programs would beryllium chopped arsenic a result.

The AP obtained a papers shared among immoderate WHO elder managers that laid retired respective options, including a connection that each large section oregon bureau mightiness beryllium slashed successful fractional by the extremity of the year.

WHO declined to remark connected whether Tedros had privately asked countries to lobby connected the agency’s behalf.

Experts accidental US benefits from WHO

Some experts said that portion the departure of the U.S. was a large crisis, it mightiness besides service arsenic an accidental to reshape planetary nationalist health.

Less than 1% of the U.S. wellness fund goes to WHO, said Matthew Kavanagh, manager of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Policy and Politics. In exchange, the U.S. gets “a wide assortment of benefits to Americans that substance rather a bit,” helium said. That includes quality astir illness epidemics globally and microorganism samples for vaccines.

Kavanagh besides said the WHO is “massively underfunded,” describing the contributions from affluent countries arsenic “peanuts.”

WHO emergencies main Dr. Michael Ryan said astatine the gathering connected the interaction of the U.S. withdrawal past week that losing the U.S. was “terrible,” but subordinate states had “tremendous capableness to capable successful those gaps.”

Ryan told WHO subordinate countries: “The U.S. is leaving a assemblage of nations. It’s fundamentally breaking up with you.”

Kavanagh doubted the U.S. would beryllium capable to lucifer WHO’s quality to stitchery details astir emerging wellness threats globally, and said its exit from the bureau “will perfectly pb to worse wellness outcomes for Americans.”

“How overmuch worse remains to beryllium seen,” Kavanagh said.

Cheng reported from Toronto.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives enactment from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely liable for each content.

Originally Published: February 3, 2025 astatine 1:01 PM EST