The U.S. has formally completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), citing the agency’s mishandling of COVID-19, failure to enact reforms, and susceptibility to political pressure from member states, according to a Jan. 22 press release from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

President Donald Trump initiated the removal process through an executive order signed on the first day of his second term in 2025, as CatholicVote previously reported.

In a joint statement accompanying the announcement, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the decision was intended to “rectify the harm from those failures inflicted on the American people” in the months following the outbreak of COVID-19.

The two leaders accused the WHO of abandoning its core mission and repeatedly acting “against the interests of the United States.” When COVID hit, they wrote, the WHO impeded the flow of critical information “that could have saved American lives and then concealed those failures under the pretext of acting ‘in the interest of public health.’” 

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Rubio and Kennedy also said the organization continued to show hostility toward the U.S. even as Washington exited, alleging it refused to return an American flag displayed in its headquarters. 

“Today, we right these injustices and bring an end to the bureaucratic inertia, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international politics that have rendered the organization beyond repair,” they concluded. “We will get our flag back for the Americans who died alone in nursing homes, the small businesses devastated by WHO-driven restrictions, and the American lives shattered by this organization’s inactivity.”

Looking ahead, the administration said U.S. global health efforts will prioritize “direct, bilateral, and results-driven partnerships” focused on preparedness and public health security without the “bloated and inefficient bureaucracy of the WHO,” according to the statement.

An accompanying HHS fact sheet said the federal government has now terminated all U.S. funding for the WHO. The U.S. has historically been the organization’s largest contributor, paying about $111 million annually in assessed dues and an average of $570 million in voluntary contributions, according to the sheet. HHS said the exit restores “accountability and transparency for U.S. taxpayers.” 

As CatholicVote previously reported, the WHO has directed significant resources toward promoting abortion worldwide. According to its website, the agency in 2022 and 2023 developed guidelines, clinical handbooks, and a mobile app that promote abortions. In January 2025, the WHO shared additional abortion-related publications, including one titled “Identifying and removing barriers to self-managed abortion in Zambia.” 

The WHO was established in 1948 as a specialized agency of the United Nations. According to its constitution, the organization’s objective is “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health,” with health defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”