With the U.S. Out, Who Will Fill the Gap at W.H.O.?

The impact of Trump's order to withdraw from WHO will be felt all over the world while combating diseases. Critical links in global research & surveillance networks will be severed

- K SRINATH REDDY

Donald Trump's disdain for global multilateral bodies, especially the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO), was apparent during his first term. It has now been acted upon at the very start of his second term. The US's withdrawal from membership of the WHO was among the executive decisions announced on Day 1 of Trump 2.0.

Trump's America First strategy states that the US must drive global policies best suited to its interests and not be influenced by consensus decisions that accommodate the priorities of other countries. Global solidarity is perceived as irrelevant in a transactional world driven by military and monetary power.

When Trump indicated intent to exit from WHO during his first term, 750 leaders from academia, science and law wrote to the US Congress on June 30, 2020, urging it to block that action. Writing in The Lancet in August 2020, several American public health leaders argued that approval of both houses of the Congress was essential for exiting WHO since the US had become a member of WHO in 1948 on the strength of a joint resolution by those two legislative bodies. President Harry Truman had cited that resolution as the legal basis for the US joining WHO. Unless an exit from WHO is the "expressed will of the US Congress", the Supreme Court could hold the decision to be unconstitutional.