U.S. Formally Withdraws From World Health Organization [View all]

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/us/politics/united-states-withdraws-world-health-organization.html

https://archive.ph/Ploxt

U.S. Formally Withdraws From World Health Organization
Global health experts worry that a lack of international coordination will lead to death and disaster.
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Jan. 22, 2026 Updated 9:25 p.m. ET

The United States formally withdrew from the World Health Organization on Thursday, making good on an executive order that President Trump issued on his first day in office pledging to leave the international organization that coordinates global responses to public health threats.

As a W.H.O. member, the United States long sent scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to participate in international decision-making about which strains to include in the flu vaccine. A W.H.O. meeting on next year’s vaccine is scheduled for February. The official said the Trump administration would soon disclose how or whether it will participate.

On Thursday, the administration said that all U.S. government funding to the organization had been terminated, and that all assigned federal employees and contractors had been recalled from its Geneva headquarters and its offices worldwide.

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the move “a grave error” on social media, adding, “Health threats do not respect borders, and weakening global cooperation makes Americans less safe.”

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