Trump has pulled the US out of the World Health Organization here's why that's sheer hypocrisy | Devi Sridhar

"In his first term as president, he withdrew the US from the World Health Organization (WHO) on 6 July 2020, giving the necessary one-year notice period. Soon after, Joe Biden was elected, and he reversed this executive order within days of being in office, reinstating the US support for the agency on 20 January 2021. While many hoped this would be the end of the story, Trump came back with a vengeance in his second term"

"This means that buried under news of other Trump-related chaos the US formally left the WHO at the end of last month. It is just the second time in the agency's history a major power has left. In 1949, during the cold war, the USSR withdrew citing unhappiness with the US influence over the organisation. In 1956, with concerns over disease surveillance and spread, the USSR re-engaged with the UN system."

"Trump's justifications for leaving the WHO are similar to Nigel Farage's attacks on the agency. First, that the WHO forced countries into lockdowns during Covid-19. This makes no sense. The WHO is a member-state body which has no legal authority to impose lockdowns, domestic public-health measures or really make countries do anything they don't want to. Lockdowns were decisions taken by national governments, and them alone."

"Another Trump claim is that the WHO is not independent. I would suggest the WHO is too independent, which is why it's being punished. A senior WHO staff member told me that it had been pressed to align with the Maga talking points on the links between vaccines and autism, and paracetamol in pregnancy and autism, as well as climate-change denialism. When the agency pushed back that this wasn't scientifically accurate, it was reprimanded."

The US withdrew from the World Health Organization in July 2020 with a one-year notice and rejoined on 20 January 2021 when presidential leadership changed. In January 2025 the US again initiated withdrawal, making it the second time a major power has left the agency, after the USSR's mid-20th century exit and return. Critics argue the WHO enforced lockdowns during COVID-19, but the WHO lacks legal authority to impose national public-health measures. WHO staff report political pressure to adopt MAGA talking points on vaccines, paracetamol in pregnancy, and climate denial, and the agency faced reprimand when it pushed back.

Read at www.theguardian.com