5 ms·

United States Completes WHO Withdrawal

119 points by Swizec 9mo ago

shubhamjain 9mo ago
> Going forward, the U.S. government will continue its global health leadership through existing and new engagements directly with other countries, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based entities. U.S.-led efforts will prioritize emergency response, biosecurity coordination, and health innovation to protect America first while delivering benefits to partners around the world. The funny thing about this administration is that they label existing system as "bad" and "corrupt", use that as justification to abandon it, and then proceed to recreate the same thing different way.
- hackyhacky 9mo ago
  The point is to enable corruption that benefits current office-holders and prevent any activity, corrupt or not, that benefits anyone else.
  - 0928374082 9mo ago
    See Goldstein, "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" (1949)
    - jasomill 9mo ago
      “For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.”
- RajBhai 9mo ago
  NAFTA bad. USMCA good.
- xingped 9mo ago
  You think they will actually replace it with something similar though. They won't. They have no desire to do that. Even in name. Just like all their other supposed plans - it's just smoke and mirrors and no one will actually do any such thing.
- roenxi 9mo ago
  I dunno, reading it in context of the whole statement, "...and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states" deserves a bit of focus. The UN is structurally designed to give China and Russia outsized influence. Coordinating technical matters like healthcare through the UN does seem a bit unwise given that everyone is posturing up for some sort of Cold-war or potential WWIII style scenario. I don't think we've seen much deescalation of tension in the last decade. Better to leave the bandwidth of the UN free to focus on diplomacy without distractions, the military situation is urgent.
  - dc396 9mo ago
    > The UN is structurally designed to give China and Russia outsized influence. An interesting assertion. I presume you are implying outsized influence over the US (or do you mean every other country?). I'm honestly curious: can you describe this structural design?
    - N19PEDL2 9mo ago
      Perhaps they mean that Russia, a corrupted warmonger weak country, has veto power, while more powerful, free and democratic countries have not.
      - sparqlittlestar 9mo ago
        Honestly, ceteris paribus for the US
        niceguy1827 9mo ago
        Thank you sir. Love learning new things every day in a tech forum, especially Latin.
    - roenxi 9mo ago
      The thing that jumps to mind is the Security Council, which they can parley into diplomatic favours from other people. And the whole point of the UN is that it was the victors of WWII explaining to the rest of the world how international affairs were going to work, so I'd be pleasantly surprised if the special privileges stopped there. And even without that, the UN isn't really set up to handle technical matters. It is a diplomatic club. The point is to give people a seat at the table without considering their competence.
- 0hw0t 9mo ago
  Art of the Deal
- jjav 9mo ago
  > proceed to recreate the same thing different way Not a same or similar thing in any way. Everything that is being torn down is being replaced by grifter schemes where all that money is funneled to personal pockets.
pmarreck 9mo ago
> faith-based entities Look, believe what you want, but praying literally has no known demonstrable deterministic scientific or medical effect on people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficacy_of_prayer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficacy_of_prayer
- King-Aaron 9mo ago
  There is literally no point invoking research and factual information into an argument with a religious person.
- snehk 9mo ago
  Not sure how it is in the US but in Germany there are many faith-based entities providing regular health services. Malteser would be one of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malteser_Hilfsdienst_e.V https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malteser_Hilfsdienst_e.V.
  - fsh 9mo ago
    These church-owned entities in Germany are almost 100% government fincanced [1], while abusing a loophole in the German constitution to discriminate their employees for religious reasons. For example, the Catholic ones are notorious for firing employees that get divorced. This system is an absolute disgrace, but the churches are still too powerful in German society and have so far been able to block any attempt at fixing the constitution. [1] https://www.malteser-international.org/en/about-us/how-we-work/finance.html https://www.malteser-international.org/en/about-us/how-we-wo...
    - dcrazy 9mo ago
      It’s not uncommon in the U.S. either. Providence Health is a Catholic nonprofit that owns 51 hospitals, including several of the big ones in Seattle. It was a big deal when they bought Swedish and people were afraid they would stop offering abortions even in cases of medical necessity.
      - 9mo ago
standardUser 9mo ago
Maybe the Board of Peace can pick up the slack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Peace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Peace
ChrisArchitect 9mo ago
Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46727669 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46727669
phendrenad2 9mo ago
This is extremely disappointing all-around. The World Health Organization was at the forefront of sounding the alarm about COVID-19 early on, and was one of the first to start preparing for the eventuality that it would spread beyond it's origin point. While most people in the US were still saying it wasn't airborne, and downplaying the spread potential and health effects of COVID, the WHO was sounding the alarm on that, too. Ah yes. A little satire does the heart good, you know?
- mahirsaid 9mo ago
  I agree there is only so much an organization can do After the spread, countries themselves have to take action in behalf of the organization's directions and procedures. The U.S. at the time took way too long to act, this was a fact, clearly why some governors were in a tweeting match and arguments over this issue. I do not agree with this direction. Clearly there is alternative motive behind this amongst the multiple other useless withdraws and steps taking at this time.
BLKNSLVR 9mo ago
> The WHO delayed declaring a global public health emergency and a pandemic during the early stages of COVID-19, costing the world critical weeks as the virus spread. Isn't this administrations position that COVID was kinda a nothingburger anyway. Not worth all the fuss? Not that it's out of the ordinary for this administration, just another grain on an increasingly large pile of hypocrisy sand. Whatever serves their agenda. > The U.S. is the world’s leading force in protecting public health, saving lives, and responding rapidly to infectious disease outbreaks. Going forward, the U.S. government will continue its global health leadership through existing and new engagements directly with other countries, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based entities. U.S.-led efforts will prioritize emergency response, biosecurity coordination, and health innovation to protect America first while delivering benefits to partners around the world. Firstly, let's update it to "was the world's leading force". Secondly, I hope they're not going to be foisting their newfound vaccine skepticism[0] on the rest of the world. Holy shit if they do. [0]: https://www.statnews.com/2026/01/22/vaccine-policy-adviser-kirk-milhoan-individual-rights-trump-public-health/ https://www.statnews.com/2026/01/22/vaccine-policy-adviser-k... Some choice quotes in that article.
- alexgieg 9mo ago
  > I hope they're not going to be foisting their newfound vaccine skepticism[0] on the rest of the world. Unfortunately they are spreading it. Everywhere US far-right propaganda touches, including via local branches of American Christian denominations, becomes an anti-vax vector. Brazil is a prime example. We have here a copycat version of the US far-right in the form of Bolsonaro worshippers, aligned with Pentecostal and Neopentecostal churches, spreading anti-vax rhetorics all around social media, to the point it's influencing people outside their bubble.
  - pixxel 9mo ago
    [dead]
NedF 9mo ago
[dead]
simianparrot 9mo ago
[flagged]
- eska 9mo ago
  I don’t know how people can defend this organization and criticize the US government for losing trust in it, when there’s a myriad of scandals like this one. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCYFh8U2xM&pp=ygUUd2hvIHRhaXdhbiBpbnRlcnZpZXc%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCYFh8U2xM&pp=ygUUd2hvIHRhaXd...
arisAlexis 9mo ago
The fact that Tedros is still the head while he mishandled completely the biggest catastrophe of our era should be taken seriously.
geldedus 9mo ago
Not surprising, given the state of healthcare in the US
daft_pink 9mo ago
Finally!

119 points by Swizec 9mo ago

> Going forward, the U.S. government will continue its global health leadership through existing and new engagements directly with other countries, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based entities. U.S.-led efforts will prioritize emergency response, biosecurity coordination, and health innovation to protect America first while delivering benefits to partners around the world. The funny thing about this administration is that they label existing system as "bad" and "corrupt", use that as justification to abandon it, and then proceed to recreate the same thing different way.

hackyhacky 9mo ago
The point is to enable corruption that benefits current office-holders and prevent any activity, corrupt or not, that benefits anyone else.
- 0928374082 9mo ago
  See Goldstein, "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" (1949)
  - jasomill 9mo ago
    “For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.”
RajBhai 9mo ago
NAFTA bad. USMCA good.
xingped 9mo ago
You think they will actually replace it with something similar though. They won't. They have no desire to do that. Even in name. Just like all their other supposed plans - it's just smoke and mirrors and no one will actually do any such thing.
roenxi 9mo ago
I dunno, reading it in context of the whole statement, "...and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states" deserves a bit of focus. The UN is structurally designed to give China and Russia outsized influence. Coordinating technical matters like healthcare through the UN does seem a bit unwise given that everyone is posturing up for some sort of Cold-war or potential WWIII style scenario. I don't think we've seen much deescalation of tension in the last decade. Better to leave the bandwidth of the UN free to focus on diplomacy without distractions, the military situation is urgent.
- dc396 9mo ago
  > The UN is structurally designed to give China and Russia outsized influence. An interesting assertion. I presume you are implying outsized influence over the US (or do you mean every other country?). I'm honestly curious: can you describe this structural design?
  - N19PEDL2 9mo ago
    Perhaps they mean that Russia, a corrupted warmonger weak country, has veto power, while more powerful, free and democratic countries have not.
    - sparqlittlestar 9mo ago
      Honestly, ceteris paribus for the US
      - niceguy1827 9mo ago
        Thank you sir. Love learning new things every day in a tech forum, especially Latin.
  - roenxi 9mo ago
    The thing that jumps to mind is the Security Council, which they can parley into diplomatic favours from other people. And the whole point of the UN is that it was the victors of WWII explaining to the rest of the world how international affairs were going to work, so I'd be pleasantly surprised if the special privileges stopped there. And even without that, the UN isn't really set up to handle technical matters. It is a diplomatic club. The point is to give people a seat at the table without considering their competence.
0hw0t 9mo ago
Art of the Deal
jjav 9mo ago
> proceed to recreate the same thing different way Not a same or similar thing in any way. Everything that is being torn down is being replaced by grifter schemes where all that money is funneled to personal pockets.

pmarreck 9mo ago

> faith-based entities Look, believe what you want, but praying literally has no known demonstrable deterministic scientific or medical effect on people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficacy_of_prayer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficacy_of_prayer

King-Aaron 9mo ago
There is literally no point invoking research and factual information into an argument with a religious person.
snehk 9mo ago
Not sure how it is in the US but in Germany there are many faith-based entities providing regular health services. Malteser would be one of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malteser_Hilfsdienst_e.V https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malteser_Hilfsdienst_e.V.
- fsh 9mo ago
  These church-owned entities in Germany are almost 100% government fincanced [1], while abusing a loophole in the German constitution to discriminate their employees for religious reasons. For example, the Catholic ones are notorious for firing employees that get divorced. This system is an absolute disgrace, but the churches are still too powerful in German society and have so far been able to block any attempt at fixing the constitution. [1] https://www.malteser-international.org/en/about-us/how-we-work/finance.html https://www.malteser-international.org/en/about-us/how-we-wo...
  - dcrazy 9mo ago
    It’s not uncommon in the U.S. either. Providence Health is a Catholic nonprofit that owns 51 hospitals, including several of the big ones in Seattle. It was a big deal when they bought Swedish and people were afraid they would stop offering abortions even in cases of medical necessity.
    - 9mo ago

standardUser 9mo ago

Maybe the Board of Peace can pick up the slack: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Peace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Peace

ChrisArchitect 9mo ago

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46727669 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46727669

phendrenad2 9mo ago

This is extremely disappointing all-around. The World Health Organization was at the forefront of sounding the alarm about COVID-19 early on, and was one of the first to start preparing for the eventuality that it would spread beyond it's origin point. While most people in the US were still saying it wasn't airborne, and downplaying the spread potential and health effects of COVID, the WHO was sounding the alarm on that, too. Ah yes. A little satire does the heart good, you know?

mahirsaid 9mo ago
I agree there is only so much an organization can do After the spread, countries themselves have to take action in behalf of the organization's directions and procedures. The U.S. at the time took way too long to act, this was a fact, clearly why some governors were in a tweeting match and arguments over this issue. I do not agree with this direction. Clearly there is alternative motive behind this amongst the multiple other useless withdraws and steps taking at this time.

BLKNSLVR 9mo ago

> The WHO delayed declaring a global public health emergency and a pandemic during the early stages of COVID-19, costing the world critical weeks as the virus spread. Isn't this administrations position that COVID was kinda a nothingburger anyway. Not worth all the fuss? Not that it's out of the ordinary for this administration, just another grain on an increasingly large pile of hypocrisy sand. Whatever serves their agenda. > The U.S. is the world’s leading force in protecting public health, saving lives, and responding rapidly to infectious disease outbreaks. Going forward, the U.S. government will continue its global health leadership through existing and new engagements directly with other countries, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based entities. U.S.-led efforts will prioritize emergency response, biosecurity coordination, and health innovation to protect America first while delivering benefits to partners around the world. Firstly, let's update it to "was the world's leading force". Secondly, I hope they're not going to be foisting their newfound vaccine skepticism[0] on the rest of the world. Holy shit if they do. [0]: https://www.statnews.com/2026/01/22/vaccine-policy-adviser-kirk-milhoan-individual-rights-trump-public-health/ https://www.statnews.com/2026/01/22/vaccine-policy-adviser-k... Some choice quotes in that article.

alexgieg 9mo ago
> I hope they're not going to be foisting their newfound vaccine skepticism[0] on the rest of the world. Unfortunately they are spreading it. Everywhere US far-right propaganda touches, including via local branches of American Christian denominations, becomes an anti-vax vector. Brazil is a prime example. We have here a copycat version of the US far-right in the form of Bolsonaro worshippers, aligned with Pentecostal and Neopentecostal churches, spreading anti-vax rhetorics all around social media, to the point it's influencing people outside their bubble.
- pixxel 9mo ago
  [dead]

NedF 9mo ago

[dead]

simianparrot 9mo ago

[flagged]

eska 9mo ago
I don’t know how people can defend this organization and criticize the US government for losing trust in it, when there’s a myriad of scandals like this one. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCYFh8U2xM&pp=ygUUd2hvIHRhaXdhbiBpbnRlcnZpZXc%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCYFh8U2xM&pp=ygUUd2hvIHRhaXd...

arisAlexis 9mo ago

The fact that Tedros is still the head while he mishandled completely the biggest catastrophe of our era should be taken seriously.

geldedus 9mo ago

Not surprising, given the state of healthcare in the US

daft_pink 9mo ago

Finally!