U.S. Pulls $62 Million in Funding From World Health Organization

The Trump administration pulled $62 million in funding from the World Health Organization on Wednesday and is taking further steps to withdraw from the body, which the United States accuses of helping China obfuscate information about the coronavirus pandemic.

The United States is on track to cut its funding and personnel from the agency before July 2021, when President Donald Trump's order earlier this year ending the U.S. relationship with WHO is set to begin, according to senior administration officials working on the matter. The United States will not consider rejoining the organization until it "gets its act together," according to Nerissa Cook, deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.

U.S. officials informed the WHO of the administration's decision Wednesday and reiterated demands that the organization implement a series of widespread reforms to limit China's interference in the body. American diplomats have been pressuring the organization for months over its efforts to help China hide evidence of the coronavirus's origins. The Trump administration maintains the WHO was complicit in Beijing's efforts to promulgate lies about the virus in the early days of its spread. The WHO went along with China's claim that it was the first country to publicly report the virus. U.S. pressure on the WHO has irritated China and European powers that continue to maintain the organization is an effective oversight body.