Secretary Kennedy to World Health Assembly: The United States Is Holding the World Health Organization (WHO) Accountable

“Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international power politics.”

In video remarks aired today during the Seventy-Eighth World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. articulated the Trump Administration’s decision that it fully intends to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) and shared his vision for the future of global health.

“Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international power politics,” Secretary Kennedy said in the video. “While the United States has provided the lion’s share of the organization’s funding historically, other countries such as China have exerted undue influence over its operations in ways that serve their own interests and not particularly the interests of the global public.”

On January 20, President Trump signed Executive Order 14155 Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization which instructs the Federal Government to “pause the future transfer of any United States Government funds, support, or resources to the WHO.”

“Not only has the WHO capitulated to political pressure from China, it’s also failed to maintain an organization characterized by transparency and fair governance by and for its Member States,” Secretary Kennedy said in the video. “The WHO often acts like it has forgotten that its members must remain accountable to their own citizens and not to transnational or corporate interests.”

Secretary Kennedy closed his remarks in the video by inviting “health ministers around the world into a new era of cooperation,” calling for his international colleagues to “create new institutions or revisit existing institutions that are lean, efficient, transparent, and accountable.”