U.S. Exit from WHO Threatens Global Public Health

On January 22, the United States announced it had completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The process began on January 20, 2025, when the U.S. president signed an executive order to exit the organization. Two days later, WHO received formal notice from the U.S. According to WHO regulations, a member state can finalize its withdrawal only one year after submitting such a request.

"Withdrawal from WHO is a loss for the United States, and it's also a loss for the rest of the world," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. The withdrawal, he warned, "makes the U.S. unsafe ... and makes the rest of the world unsafe, so it's not really the right decision."

The U.S. reportedly still owes 278 million USD in unpaid WHO dues. According to U.S. news organization STAT News, a U.S. State Department spokesperson stated that Washington does not intend to settle this debt. Hence the U.S. is leaving with both a financial shortfall and an unresolved obligation.

The withdrawal represents a clear retreat from international responsibility and poses a serious threat to global public health security. WHO serves as a cornerstone of global health governance. In 2023, the U.S. was one of its largest contributors, providing both assessed and voluntary funding. The abrupt and uncoordinated exit has created a major funding gap, forcing WHO to scale back staff and critical health programs over the past year.

The budgetary constraints will likely reduce resources for low- and middle-income countries, which depend on WHO for funding and health guidance.

Judd Walson, chair of the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University, warned that "as countries experience worse health — more mortality and morbidity — economic conditions worsen as sick populations can't work, and the economic situation of already poor countries deteriorates further. Political instability follows, with mass migration, war and conflict, and now things start spilling over borders."

WHO also functions as a central platform for sharing infectious disease data and coordinating responses to global health emergencies. The U.S. has faced persistent public health challenges in recent years, including repeated H5N1 avian influenza cross-species transmission events and a measles outbreak in 2025 that reached its highest level since 1992.

Leaving WHO weakens the U.S. role in global outbreak coordination and reduces other countries' ability to access timely and accurate disease data from within U.S. borders.

As Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in Epidemiology and Global Health at the Montreal-based McGill University, noted, if a new outbreak emerges and the U.S. does not participate in coordinated global response efforts, neighboring countries such as Canada may be among the first to feel the impact.

The decision also carries serious consequences for U.S. national security. Time magazine reported that one of the first things that could change for U.S. scientists is their access to databases that are important for monitoring infectious diseases like influenza, as well as emerging threats that could affect the health of Americans, such as COVID.

While many of these data sources are public, and U.S. scientists will continue to access them, they might not have as much insight into how the raw data were collected and processed, Walson said. That could be important for understanding how to interpret the information and for getting a head start on potentially dangerous outbreaks of new infectious diseases.

"By pulling out, we are not just losing our ability to provide data, but also to contribute to the dialogue and make sure we have a say in understanding why the flu vaccine is being composed in the way it is every year," said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The move is widely seen as another anti-science action by the U.S. government.

On January 22, IDSA issued a statement condemning the withdrawal.

"The U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization is a shortsighted and misguided abandonment of our global health commitments. Global cooperation and communication are critical to keep our own citizens protected because germs do not respect borders," Ronald Nahass, president of IDSA, told ABC News.

The U.S. government should restore respect for scientific evidence and international responsibility by rejoining WHO as soon as possible — rather than positioning itself as a disruptor of global public health governance.

Source: Science and Technology Daily