NATO World Order
The U.S. Government and the World Health Organization
Published: May 22, 2023
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Key Facts
The World Health Organization (WHO), founded in 1948, is a specialized agency of the United Nations with a broad mandate to act as a coordinating authority on international health issues, including helping countries mount responses to public health emergencies such as COVID-19.
The U.S. government (U.S.) has long been actively engaged with WHO, providing financial and technical support as well as participating in its governance structure.
The U.S. has historically been one of the largest funders of WHO, providing between $200 million and $600 million annually over the last decade. In 2020, the Trump administration suspended financial support and initiated a process to withdraw the U.S. from membership in the organization, but President Biden reversed that decision upon taking office in January 2021 and restored U.S. funding to WHO.
The WHO faces many challenges going forward, including having a broad mandate but limited, inflexible funding, as well as a complex bureaucratic structure. The organization has instituted changes to address some of these issues, but many governments, including the U.S., are calling for further reforms to allow WHO to better respond to future epidemics and pandemics as well as other global health issues.
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fact-sheet/the-u-s-government-and-the-world-health-organization/