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The Trump Administration starts an official withdrawal from the World Health Organization
Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tweeted the news Tuesday.
“Congress received a notification that POTUS officially withdrew the US from @ WHO in the midst of a pandemic. To call Trump’s response to the chaotic & incoherent COVID did not do it fairly. This would not protect American life or interests — it made Americans sick & America is alone, “he wrote.
A State Department official also confirmed that “notification of the withdrawal of the United States, effective July 6, 2021, has been submitted to the UN Secretary General, which is a repository for WHO.”
The letter addressed to the UN is very short, about three sentences, a source explaining the correspondence to CNN, and it will trigger a one-year timeline of withdrawal. However, this source also warned that they could not confirm that they saw the final version of the letter.
While lawmakers from both sides have long cited systemic problems with WHO, many also criticized the President’s decision to withdraw during the global pandemic once a century.
Among its current functions, WHO is trying to coordinate efforts to get personal safety and medical equipment, such as ventilators, to hospitals throughout the world.
Some have warned that withdrawal in the current environment could also disrupt important clinical trials for developing vaccines, as well as efforts to track the spread of the virus globally.
Moves come when the virus surges
There are at least 2,953,423 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 130,546 people have died from the virus in the country, according to the Johns Hopkins University case count.
On Monday, Johns Hopkins reported 17,346 new cases and 261 deaths. The total includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that the increase in cases in the US was purely the result of increased testing, but a WHO official knocked down the claim on Monday.
WHO scientists and experts are scheduled to travel to China this weekend to investigate the origins of the new corona virus, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Tuesday.
In particular, experts will try to trace narratives about how the corona virus might have spread from the wild to livestock that might be for humans, said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergency Program.
Trump initially announced his intention to withdraw from the WHO in May and consistently accused the organization of helping China cover up the origins of the virus. He also claimed that if WHO acted properly, he could institute a travel ban for people who came from China more quickly.
The decision can be reversed if Biden wins the election
The Trump administration has diverted funds from WHO and the formal withdrawal process will take one year to complete. Critics of the decision hope that the withdrawal decision will be canceled if Trump loses the November presidential election.
“Whatever is done now can be reversed in the coming year, because it will not be final,” a UN diplomat told CNN on Tuesday, indicating how long the withdrawal process will last.
Trump’s decision to permanently sever US relations with WHO follows a pattern of railing against global organizations for years, with the President claiming that the US is benefiting. The president has questioned US funding for the UN and NATO, was withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement and repeatedly criticized the World Trade Organization.
But health experts, US lawmakers and world leaders have expressed concern at the organization’s deforestation amid a pandemic.
After Trump’s announcement in May, a WHO spokesman told CNN, “We have no comments to offer at this time.”
Jennifer Hansler from CNN contributed to this report.
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