The United States has formally completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organisation (WHO), a United Nations health agency headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with the White House saying the decision was driven by concerns about how the body handled the COVID-19 pandemic and what it described as a lack of urgent reforms.
In a statement released on Thursday, 22 January 2026, the White House said the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that oversees public health in the United States, and the United States Department of State, the government ministry responsible for foreign affairs, supported the move because of “the organisation’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.”
Okay News reports that the White House also said the United States will keep only limited contact with the global health agency as it completes the exit process. United States Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who leads the country’s main health ministry, and United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would coordinate with WHO only in a restricted way to finalise the withdrawal.
According to the statement, the process began on Monday, 20 January 2025, when United States President Donald Trump announced plans to leave the organisation. Over the following year, the White House said the United States halted funding to WHO, pulled out personnel, and shifted work previously carried out through the agency to direct engagements with other countries and organisations.
The White House accused WHO of acting too slowly at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, saying delays in declaring a global public health emergency and later a pandemic “costing the world critical weeks as the virus spread.” The statement also said WHO leaders praised China’s response even as, it alleged, there were concerns about early underreporting, limits on information, and delays in confirming human-to-human transmission.
In addition, the White House said WHO played down the risk of spread by people without symptoms and did not quickly acknowledge airborne transmission. It also argued that the agency failed to carry out reforms after the pandemic.
The statement further criticised a WHO report on the possible origins of COVID-19, saying it dismissed the possibility that scientists created the virus, while also noting that China did not provide genetic sequences from people infected early in the pandemic and did not share full details about the activities and biosafety conditions at laboratories in Wuhan, a major city in central China.
WHO, which coordinates health standards and international disease response among member countries, has previously said the United States did not pay its membership fees for 2024 and 2025, which the organisation put at about $260 million. The agency said its member states would discuss the United States departure during an executive board meeting in February, but that it had no mechanism to stop the exit.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, the head of the organisation, said he regretted the decision, adding, “I hope that the US will reconsider its decision and rejoin WHO.”
The White House said the United States would continue what it called its global health leadership through partnerships with other countries, private sector groups, non-governmental organisations, and faith-based organisations. It said its priorities would include emergency response, biosecurity coordination, and health innovation within the United States and internationally.
