Within hours of his return to the White House on Monday, newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump signed an executive order saving the nation from its commitment to grant the World Health Organization (WHO) broad new powers and residence in the U.S.
Approved last June, the Biden Administration-backed amendments to WHO’s International Health Regulations (IHR) required WHO to set up an office (“National IHR Authority”) in the U.S., from which it would address both real and perceived “potential” health threats.
The newly-adopted amendments also committed the U.S. to giving WHO wide-ranging authority to police, surveil and control Americans, in the name of protecting them from “pandemic emergencies,” a former WHO medical director warned at the time.
In a May 28, 2024 interview with American Family Radio, former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) urged the Biden Administration to reverse course and vote against the amendments. Bachmann said she feared the amendments would weaken U.S. sovereignty and be used by the federal government as an excuse to exert greater control over Americans’ lives.
On Monday, Pres. Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S., not just from its commitments under the amendment, but also from membership the World Health Organization.
As president in 2020, Trump issued WHO a notification of withdrawal, which the Biden Administration revoked in 2021. Trump’s executive order signed Monday revokes Biden’s revocation.
Monday’s executive order specifically releases the U.S from all obligations imposed by “the amendments to the International Health Regulations”:
“While withdrawal is in progress, the Secretary of State will cease negotiations on the WHO Pandemic Agreement and the amendments to the International Health Regulations, and actions taken to effectuate such agreement and amendments will have no binding force on the United States.”
As CNSNews first reported last August, the Brownstone Institute has published an analysis of the amendments co-authored by Senior Scholar David Bell, a public health physician and former WHO medical officer. Titled “IHR Amendments Open Door to Perpetual Emergencies,” the report examines the amendments line by line, highlighting their most problematic initiatives:
- Broadening the definition of a “pandemic emergency” to the point that “a simple threat can be declared an emergency,” resulting in a proliferation of declared “emergencies” and government-imposed mandates, restrictions and lockdowns.
- Ordaining WHO’s Director-General “as the sole person who declares” a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
- Creation of National IHR Authorities (offices) in member countries (such as the U.S.) to manage, implement and track compliance with the WHO agenda.
- Requiring member nations to perform “a broad list of surveillance and reporting activities” within their respective countries.
- Justifying the imposition of mandates and restrictions under the guise of combating perceived “potential” health threats.
- Broadening the definition of “health products” to the point that “a whole industry of pandemic products will be facilitated and rolled out by the WHO, without any oversight, transparency, and accountability mechanisms.”
Trump’s executive order cites WHO’s:
- Mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises.
- Failure to adopt urgently needed reforms.
- Inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.
- Demand of unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments.
“China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO,” Trump’s executive order notes.
In multiple references, the WHO amendment orders WHO’s national IHR authorities in member nations to conduct “surveillance,” which it defines below:
“‘Surveillance’ means the systematic ongoing collection, collation and analysis of data for public health purposes and the timely dissemination of public health information for assessment and public health response as necessary.”