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Speaker says U.S. withdrawing from WHO, urges new international health cooperation
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Summary
In a recorded address, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who identified himself as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, said President Trump had decided to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization and called for new, leaner international health institutions.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who in the recording identified himself as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, said President Trump had decided to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization and urged other health ministers to form new international arrangements.
Kennedy said the WHO had become "mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international power politics," and alleged the organization had been unduly influenced by China. "While The United States has provided the lion's share of the organization's funding historically, other countries such as China have exerted undue influence over its operations," he said.
The speaker attributed failures in the WHO's pandemic response to political interference during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the organization "suppressed reports at critical junctures of human to human transmission" and "worked with China to promote the fiction that COVID originated from bats or pangolins rather than from a Chinese government sponsored research at a bio lab in Wuhan." Those statements were presented by the speaker as his characterizations of the WHO's conduct.
Kennedy said the United States would not participate in a proposed "pandemic agreement," calling it a lock-in of existing dysfunctions, and encouraged "like minded countries" to consider alternatives. "We need to reboot the whole system," he said, adding that the U.S. intends to seek international cooperation that is "lean, efficient, transparent, and accountable." He invited "my fellow health ministers around the world" to consider creating new institutions or revisiting existing ones.
The recording includes no text of any formal treaty withdrawal notice, no citation of a specific legal action with dates or implementing documents, and provides no timeline or list of countries the speaker said had been contacted. The speaker framed his statements as policy decisions and appeals rather than presenting supporting documentary evidence in the recording.
The recording ends with the line "Produced by the US Department of Health and Human Services."
