INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Members of Donald Trump&s presidential transition team are laying the groundwork for the United States to withdraw from the World Health
Organization on the first day of his second term, according to a health law expert familiar with the discussions.I have it on good authority
that he plans to withdraw, probably on Day One or very early in his administration,& said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at
Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, Reuters reported.The
Financial Times was first to report on the plans, citing two experts
The second expert, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, was not immediately available for comment.The Trump
transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.The plan, which aligns with Trump&s longstanding criticism of
health agency, would mark a dramatic shift in United States global health policy and further isolate Washington from international efforts
to battle pandemics.Trump has nominated several critics of the organization to top public health positions, including Robert F
Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who is up for the post of secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees all major United States
health agencies including the CDC and FDA, read the report.Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six
months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.Trump has argued that the agency failed to hold China accountable for
the early spread of COVID-19
He has repeatedly called the WHO a puppet of Beijing and vowed to redirect United States contributions to domestic health initiatives.A WHO
spokesperson declined to directly comment but referred Reuters to comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press
10 in which he was asked whether he was concerned that the Trump administration would withdraw from the organization.Tedros said at the time
that the WHO needed to give the United States time and space for the transition
He also voiced confidence that states could finalize a pandemic agreement by May 2025.Critics warn that a United States withdrawal could
undermine global disease surveillance and emergency response systems, Reuters reported.The United States would lose influence and clout in
global health and China would fill the vacuum
I can''t imagine a world without a robust WHO
But United States withdrawal would severely weaken the agency,& Gostin said.The post Trump transition team plans immediate WHO withdrawal,
expert says first appeared on Ariana News.
