President Donald Trump appears to be conducting his own health experiment on the American public: Testing our tolerance for high winning levels.
Shortly after Trump was inaugurated, he signed an executive order pulling the country from the World Health Organization (WHO) and slashing funding on our way out the door.
In turn, WHO has announced significant budget cuts and a hiring freeze in response to the US decision to withdraw from the organization. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus informed staff via email that the US withdrawal “has made our financial situation more acute” and has created “significant concern and uncertainty for the WHO workforce.”
The U.S. contribution to WHO was $1.3 billion between 2022 and 2023. The money helps fund public health work including controlling deadly diseases.Total program budget for WHO for 2022-2023 was $6.7 billion.WHO said on X earlier this week it regrets the U.S. decision to leave the organization and hopes the decision will be reconsidered.Global health consultant Fifa Rohman told Politico public health in the United States could be harmed in dealing with pandemics without WHO.She said dealing with misinformation in pandemics could be more problematic for the U.S. without WHO.
After our experience with COVID-19 and all the disinformation (including everything I had to counter and was proven right about), I think our levels of correct information will be much higher.
Many Americans feel the same way about this global health organization as well.
The news gets better. WHO is going to have to trim its travel budgets and prioritize expenditures.
In response, the WHO is “freezing recruitment, except in the most critical areas” and “significantly reducing travel expenditure.” All meetings must now be fully virtual unless in exceptional circumstances, and missions to provide technical support to countries should be “limited to the most essential.”Other measures include limits to the replacement of IT equipment, a renegotiation of major contracts, and a suspension of office refurbishments and capital investments, unless needed for security or cost-cutting.“This set of measures is not comprehensive, and more will be announced in due course,” the email added. “I thank those staff who have already sent suggestions for mobilizing resources and further improving our efficiency and cost-effectiveness, and I invite all staff to do the same.”
WHO can join the American health and medical agencies on the bench, which are also experiencing funding pauses as the Trump administration installs watchdogs to evaluate exactly what type of science is actually needed and helpful for this nation.
Our nation is the WHO’s largest financial contributor, providing approximately 18% of the organization’s budget, which amounts to around $261 million for the years 2024 and 2025.
That contribution is followed in second place by China at $181m. The WHO’s loss of its top donor will impact the global health agency’s ability to address major crises from tuberculosis to HIV/AIDS and global pandemics, according to experts.
I will point out that WHO and all its global health activities have not stopped the spread of bird flu or monkeypox, which I have covered for several years.
And lack of spending on our border security has now put the nation at risk for dengue fever, malaria, and other tropical diseases, and we now have reported locally acquired cases after many years of being free of such.
So add another $260 million to the DOGE savings counter, and let the winning continue.
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