US President Donald Trump's administration has begun to formally withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) following its continuous criticism of the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but politicians and scholars warned of the move's drastic consequences for both the world and the United States, which continues to be one of the main hotspots of the raging pandemic
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th July, 2020) US President Donald Trump's administration has begun to formally withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) following its continuous criticism of the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but politicians and scholars warned of the move's drastic consequences for both the world and the United States, which continues to be one of the main hotspots of the raging pandemic.
On Tuesday, Congress received a notification from US President Donald Trump that the United States had started the formal withdrawal process from WHO. The UN spokesman confirmed that the US officially notified UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about the withdrawal from its health agency.
Meanwhile, the United States has reported more than 460,000 new cases of COVID-19, nearing a total of 3 million cases � more than one-fourth of the global tally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat member of the Foreign Relations Committee, warned that the withdrawal "leaves Americans sick and America alone."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, joined by scores of other Democrats, similarly decried the move.
"The President's official withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization is an act of true senselessness as WHO coordinates the global fight against COVID-19. With millions of lives at risk, the President is crippling the international effort to defeat the virus," Pelosi said in a tweet.
REQUIREMENTS AND TIMELINE FOR US WITHDRAWAL
The United States, which has been a member of WHO since 1948, is the largest contributor to WHO, providing some 15 percent of the organization's budget, or more than $400 million in donations annually. Without the US in the picture, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which accounted for around 12 percent of the agency's funding in 2018-2019, will become the largest donor.
The UN health agency earlier alerted the international community about gaps in its funding and the need for additional resources to tackle the pandemic. In particular, WHO said last month that its Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator initiative lacks $27.9 billion to cover all its needs, including $13.7 billion for those that are urgent. As part of efforts to secure additional funding, the WHO Foundation, the grant-making entity legally independent from the UN agency, was established in late May in order to ensure donations from the general public and private sector.
According to the UN spokesman, the United States has to meet all requirements to be eligible to withdraw from WHO, which includes giving and fully meeting the payment obligations for the current fiscal year.
Besides that, the conditions include a one-year notice, which means that the United States cannot leave the organization until next July at the earliest - months after the US presidential election in November. With Trump's approval rating plummeting to 38 percent, according to the latest Gallup survey, the question is still open if the incumbent president will secure his second term and still be in office when the withdrawal occurs.
Democratic hopeful Joe Biden promised to rejoin the UN health agency, should he win the election.
"Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health. On my first day as president, I will rejoin the WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage," Biden tweeted.
Yet, Trump may not be able to unilaterally withdraw from the organization, even if he stays in office. According to a letter, signed by more than 750 scholars and experts and sent to Congress on Tuesday, the US president "lacks the legal authority" to leave the organization without congressional approval.
"With the Constitution silent on the process of withdrawing from a treaty, the best understanding of the Constitution is a 'mirror principle,' under which the same process the U.S. government uses to enter a treaty is required to withdraw from it. The United States joined WHO through a 1948 joint resolution of Congress. Therefore, a joint resolution would be required to withdraw," the document signed by experts in US constitutional law, international law and relations, and global public health asserted.
The aforementioned letter also warned about the drastic consequences of the move � both for the United States and the health of the world.
"It is not overstatement to say that withdrawal will likely cost lives, American and foreign. Once outside the WHO, the U.S. would lose access to the WHO's global system for sharing critical outbreak data and vaccines, slowing U.S. ability to return to normalcy from COVID-19, and to prepare and react to future pandemics. The rest of the world would be at heightened risk, too," the document read.
The US' withdrawal would cut funding to the organization's coronavirus response, which would impede its ability to detect new outbreaks. ultimately putting the United States itself at risk, and affect other vital programs and efforts, including on polio eradication, HIV/AIDS, malaria and others.
"USA withdrawal from WHO is unethical. US owes a duty to keep people safe. WHO is vital because an outbreak anywhere could rapidly spread to US. We also owe duty to our fellow citizens worldwide. We owe a duty to other nations, while they have reciprocal duties. We're in this together," Lawrence O. Gostin, the director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, tweeted.
The scholar also argued that the US would be "a clear loser" from quitting the organization as it will lose its leadership in global health and make its citizens less safe and secure.
"Leaving WHO does not serve the interests of people in the US or anywhere in the world. We need WHO, we need it to be stronger, and it can be stronger with sustained US presence and support. WHO is essential to responding to COVID-19 and to broader global health protection," Dr. Tom Frieden, the CEO of Resolve To Save Lives and the former CDC director, tweeted.
TRUMP'S LONG-TIME OPPOSITION TO WHO
The US president has long been at odds with WHO, with his recent move to leave the organization becoming a culmination of his anger over the agency's alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now gained a strong foothold in the United States.
On multiple occasions, Trump has claimed that China's influence in WHO allowed the novel coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan to morph into a global pandemic when the disease should have been contained within China.
The UN agency has repeatedly said it declared the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency in January, which gave countries enough time to prepare. Chinese officials have repeatedly said they shared information on the outbreak in a timely manner.
On May 18, Trump published a letter he sent to the WHO chief, in which he warned that the United States would permanently halt its contributions to the organization if the organization did not commit to major improvements within the next 30 days. While other member states, including European nations, have acknowledged the need for improvements of the agency's mandate, they called to wait until the end of the pandemic for the review of the agency's response and discussion of its potential reforms, instead focusing on immediate dangers posed by the virus outbreak.
