[Slashdot] - Trump Hasn't Followed Through On Plan To Withdraw US From WHO

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On May 29, President Trump said his administration would take immediate action to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization. "Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization, and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving, urgent global public health needs," Trump said at the time, while criticizing the WHO's response to the coronavirus pandemic and claiming that "China has total control" over the United Nations agency. But now, two weeks later, there's nothing to indicate that Trump has followed through on his plan. In an article yesterday titled "U.S. hasn't taken action to withdraw from WHO despite Trump pledge," The Hill wrote that "no steps toward a formal withdrawal have been taken," and that "a WHO spokesman told The Hill that the agency had received no formal notification that the United States would withdraw." Another article yesterday in Stat, a health news website, said that "none of the levers that would need to be pulled to follow through on [Trump's WHO] decision has been pulled." For example, the Trump administration has "not paid outstanding financial obligations to the WHO, a step that would be required before the United States could pull out under a joint resolution signed by Congress," the article said. These reports follow a Vanity Fair article published Monday that describes "the secret plan to unwithdraw from the WHO after Trump's 'bizarre,' 'ruinous' exit." The article continued: "Now, Vanity Fair has learned, secret negotiations aimed at reversing Trump's decision have begun between [U.S.] Ambassador [Andrew] Bremberg and the WHO's director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. A phone call Saturday between the two men resulted in a possible framework agreement to restore the relationship, which the U.S. diplomatic corps views as essential to the global fight against coronavirus and myriad other public health issues. "The framework would allow for both increased scrutiny of China's conduct and an independent review of the WHO's performance in the first six months of the outbreak. And discussions continue over whether the WHO would exert pressure on China to turn over original samples of the live virus and allow its scientists to be interviewed regarding the virus's origins. 'It's fair to say the US is not out of WHO, and negotiations are ongoing to address concerns and hopefully walk back from this decision,' said an official who participated in a call with G7 partners, an alliance of countries with advanced economies, where this information was shared."

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