Instead, the president’s May 29 announcement — in which he declared that “We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization” — has been followed by virtual silence from both top health officials in his administration as well as WHO officials in Geneva. Some legal experts find themselves wondering whether a withdrawal will happen at all.
“I think now in the calm of day, WHO isn’t their biggest target and [U.S. officials] will be pretty silent on it,” said Lawrence Gostin, the faculty director at Georgetown’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. “And it probably is a good strategy.”
The State Department, asked by STAT whether official notice had been served to the WHO or whether U.S. officials were drafting such a notice, reiterated the president’s complaints against the agency and his intention to withdrawal.
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