By Associated Press’s Maria Cheng and Jamie Keaten
GENEVA (AP) In a closed-door meeting with diplomats last week, the head of the World Health Organization urged world leaders to rely on Washington to reverse President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the U.N. health agency, claiming that the United States will lose out on vital information about disease outbreaks around the world.
However, according to internal conference notes obtained by The Associated Press, governments also grilled WHO about how it may handle the departure of its largest donor during a crucial budget meeting last Wednesday. Bjorn Kummel, a German diplomat, issued the following warning: We must put out the fire as quickly as possible because the roof is burning.
The United States is by far the largest donor to WHO for 2024–2025, with an estimated $988 million, or around 14% of WHO’s $6.9 billion budget.
The WHO’s health crises program heavily depends on American funding, according to a financial paper that was given during the conference. Over 80% of the readiness activities in WHO’s Europe office were dependent on the $154 million that the United States contributed.
According to the report, up to 40% of WHO’s extensive emergency activities are supported by U.S. funds. In addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars squandered by HIV and polio eradication initiatives, it stated that responses in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Sudan were in jeopardy.
According to the document, the United States also funds 95% of WHO’s TB activities in Europe and over 60% of TB initiatives in Africa, the Western Pacific, and at the agency’s Geneva headquarters.
WHO finance director George Kyriacou stated last Wednesday at a separate private discussion on the effects of the U.S. leave that if the agency continues to spend at its current pace, its cash flows in the first half of 2026 would be in a precarious scenario. According to a recording that the AP was able to get, he said, “We’re not going to do the current rate of spending.”
According to Kyriacou, WHO has tried to withdraw money from the United States for previous expenses since Trump’s executive order, but the majority of those requests have been denied.
Additionally, he said, the United States has not yet paid its 2024 obligations to WHO, which has caused the organization to go into deficit.
During its most recent session, which begins Monday and runs through February 11, WHO’s executive board—which is composed of 34 high-level envoys, including numerous national health ministers—was anticipated to talk about budget issues.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff were told last week to cease their collaboration with WHO immediately.
At the budget meeting, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus informed the audience that the organization continues to provide certain data—though it is unclear what data—to U.S. scientists.
Tedros urged member nations to get in touch with U.S. authorities, saying, “We continue to give them information because they need it.” We would be grateful if you persisted in urging them to change their mind.
WHO is now attempting to stem Marburgvirus epidemics in Tanzania, Ebola in Uganda, and Mpoxin Congo, among other health emergencies.
On January 20, Trump’s first day back in office, Tedros signed an executive order rebutting his three stated reasons for quitting the agency. According to the president’s directive, WHO failed to implement necessary reforms, mishandled the COVID-19 epidemic that started in China, and demanded unjustly high fees from U.S. members.
According to Tedros, WHO issued a warning to the globe in January 2020 about the possible risks posed by the coronavirus and has since implemented dozens of reforms, including initiatives to increase its donor base.
Tedros added that he thought the U.S. withdrawal was more about the gap in epidemic information and other vital health data that the US would have to deal with going forward than it was about the money.
He informed the members of the meeting that it would be crucial to bring the United States back. And I believe that everyone can contribute to that.
The U.S. withdrawal is the worst issue the World Health Organization has faced in decades, according to Kummel, a top counselor on global health at Germany’s health ministry.
He also inquired as to what specific WHO functions would cease to exist in the event that U.S. funding ceased.
Officials from Bangladesh and France, among other nations, inquired about WHO’s particular plans for handling the loss of U.S. financing and questioned whether health initiatives might be slashed as a result.
The AP was able to receive a paper that was circulated around senior managers at WHO. The document outlined a number of options, one of which was that by the end of the year, every significant department or office might be cut in half.
Regarding whether Tedros had asked nations to lobby on the agency’s behalf in private, WHO declined to comment.
According to some analysts, the U.S. withdrawal constituted a serious issue, but it might also present a chance to change public health around the world.
According to Matthew Kavanagh, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, WHO receives less than 1% of the country’s health budget. He stated that in return, the United States receives a wide range of benefits that are very important to Americans. This includes virus samples for vaccinations and information on illness outbreaks around the world.
Additionally, Kavanagh said that the WHO is severely underfunded and called the contributions made by wealthy nations “peanuts.”
At last week’s discussion on the effects of the U.S. exit, WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan stated that while it was awful to lose the U.S., member states had a great ability to cover such gaps.
Ryan informed WHO member nations: The United States is withdrawing from a global community. In essence, it’s ending our relationship.
Kavanagh said the United States’ withdrawal from the WHO will undoubtedly result in worse health outcomes for Americans and questioned whether the country could equal WHO’s capacity to collect information on new health dangers throughout the world.
It’s unclear how much worse things will get, Kavanagh said.
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From Toronto, Cheng provided a report.