Summarised by Centrist
In a video address to the World Health Organisation on May 20, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said China’s “undue influence” over the WHO during COVID was a driving factor behind why the Trump administration decided to pull the United States out of the organisation.
He accused the WHO of becoming a “tool of politics,” saying it “turned its back on health and health security.”
Kennedy criticised the WHO for “suppressing reports at critical junctures” under pressure from the Chinese regime, and said it had not acknowledged its failures during the pandemic. “The WHO has not even come to terms with its failures during COVID, let alone made significant reforms,” he said.
His comments followed the WHO Assembly’s approval of a new Pandemic Agreement, which sets global procedures for outbreak prevention and response. Kennedy said the agreement would “lock in all of the dysfunctions” seen in the WHO’s COVID response. Critics warn the agreement could allow the WHO to override national sovereignty and impose heavy-handed policies.
Kennedy echoed President Trump in calling for a “new era of cooperation” and “systemic reform” outside the WHO framework. “I urge the world’s health ministers and the WHO to take our withdrawal from the organisation as a wake-up call,” he said.
He also noted that the US has contributed the “lion’s share” of WHO funding over the past 25 years, and said any future global health body must be “fair and efficient and transparent.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed for a USD 2.1 billion annual budget, calling the amount modest compared to global military and tobacco industry spending. China pledged an additional $500 million in funding over five years.
