Watchdog Group Praises U.S. Withdrawal from World Health Organization

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA), a nonpartisan taxpayer and consumer advocacy group, strongly praised President Trump’s decision to terminate the United States’ membership in the World Health Organization (WHO). On his first day in office, the President announced the U.S. would withdraw from the United Nations subagency and issued the required one-year notice. That notice has now expired, officially ending America’s participation in a bloated, taxpayer-funded international bureaucracy.

In response, Ross Marchand, Executive Director at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, offered the following comment:

“It’s long past time for the U.S. to walk away from the WHO. Year after year, American taxpayers have been on the hook for nearly 20 percent of the organization’s $3.4 billion budget. In return for that investment, the WHO has pedaled harmful misinformation on tobacco harm reduction, facilitated China’s early cover-ups of the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues to recklessly label any and all products ‘carcinogenic.’ TPA has consistently pushed back on the WHO’s many falsehoods, most recently at our ‘Good COP’ conference discussing the evidence on smoking and reduced-risk products. Ending American participation in the WHO is a welcome step toward holding the bureaucracy accountable.

“WHO reports have shown that the organization spends roughly $200 million per year pursuing luxury travel, including first class flights and $1,000-per-night hotel rooms. This is more than the agency spends on tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria and hepatitis combined. In fact, this spending amounts to over twenty times more in travel costs per employee than other health NGOs like Doctors Without Borders (DWB). Fortunately, this blank check for egregiously wasteful spending is coming to an end.

“TPA thanks President Trump for finally withdrawing the U.S. from a corrupt and unaccountable global bureaucracy. This is a massive win for taxpayers and consumers tired of footing the bill for the WHO’s epic ineptitude.” 

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.