The US withdraws from the World Health Organization.

According to CNN, President Donald Trump decided to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) on his first day in office. This significant move severed ties with the UN health agency on his very first day in office.

President Trump has long been critical of the WHO, and in 2020 he initiated the process of withdrawing the US from the WHO in the final months of his first term. Just six months later, when Joe Biden took over the White House, this process was reversed.

At the time, in 2020, the text of the executive order from the Trump administration stated that "the WHO's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic originating in Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its failure to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states" were the reasons for the US withdrawal.

"That's a big problem," Trump told an aide as he began signing the executive order, while also pointing to his 2020 decision and his belief that the U.S. was paying too much for the organization compared to other countries.

The decree also stated that the WHO “continues to demand excessively large payments from the United States in an unfair manner.”

Previously, after winning a second term as president, Trump continued to appoint many individuals who were dissatisfied with the WHO to leadership positions in the health sector.

A prime example is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, who has long publicly expressed dissenting views on vaccines.

The US's actual withdrawal from the WHO is seen as a relatively major turning point for US global health policy, further isolating Washington from international efforts to combat the pandemic.