The Trump administration said it will not pay what it owes the World Health Organization, declaring that the United States has officially withdrawn from the agency.
“All U.S. funding for, and staffing of, WHO initiatives has ceased,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy said in a statement on Thursday.
However, questions remain over whether the United States has met the legal conditions required for withdrawal. When the U.S. joined the WHO in 1948, Congress stipulated that withdrawal requires both a one-year notice period and payment of all outstanding financial obligations for the current fiscal year. The U.S. owes $260 million in dues for 2024 and 2025.
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About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
