The United States of America officially withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 22, 2026. This decision was made by the Trump administration, when President Donald Trump declared that the U.S. would be leaving WHO in January 2025. Since then, the U.S. stopped funding WHO, withdrew all personnel from WHO, and began pivoting activities done within WHO to direct communications with other countries. 

This is not the first time that the U.S. has attempted to leave WHO. The Trump administration attempted to leave the organization in 2020, which was reversed in 2021 by former President Joe Biden. This first attempt was due to concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic, which was not handled in a way that the Trump administration liked. The past and current decisions to leave WHO has sparked extreme controversy.

WHO is a leading organization in global health communications and is dedicated to world health. The U.S. has been a huge contributor to the operations of WHO, leading WHO to face potential consequences without the U.S. Additionally, U.S. citizens are at a disadvantage in being made aware of health operations and issues across the world. WHO has been critical to helping scientists and researchers in combating global health issues. Without it, the U.S. can expect a decreased awareness of health concerns.

The U.S. and its withdrawal from WHO will be detrimental in accessing scientific data and will prevent the US from contributing to meaningful dialogue. That being said, regular U.S. citizens are still able to access information from WHO on their own accord. Accessing WHO is crucial in our awareness about scientific data, and is still very encouraged.