By Canadian Press

Canadian doc says WHO headquarters ‘stressed, devastated’ as Trump orders U.S. exit

Jan 21, 2025 | 1:56 PM

TORONTO — A Canadian global health specialist says staff at the World Health Organization are “devastated” by President Donald Trump’s executive order to pull the U.S. out of the agency.

Dr. Madhukar Pai, the Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology and Global Health, is at the WHO headquarters in Geneva this week for meetings about tuberculosis.

He says losing the large amount of funding the U.S. provides would threaten public health around the world, including in Canada.

Pai says if there is a major disease outbreak — such as H5N1 avian flu — and the U.S. isn’t looped into the worldwide response, the virus would spread — likely into Canada.

He is calling on the Canadian government to help fill the funding void, both through financial contributions to the WHO as well as by taking a leadership role in global health.

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Pai says he is also worried about the “anti-vaccine rhetoric” he is hearing from some of Trump’s picks for appointees to leadership positions at a time when vaccine-preventable diseases are resurging.

Pai said Tuesday that “everything went crazy” at the WHO headquarters when Trump’s executive order was signed Monday.

”Everybody here is absolutely stressed, devastated, and literally freaking out because some of their programs at WHO are extremely reliant on U.S. government funding,” said Pai, who is also a global health professor at McGill University in Montreal.

“They’re not even sure how to keep the lights on, keep their staff working, keep the programs going, so it’s a pretty massive crisis.”

”There are wide-ranging impacts, I would say, to all countries, not just Canada,” he said.

Canada’s geographic proximity puts it at additional risk if its southern neighbour fails to respond appropriately to public health threats, Pai said.

“I think we’ll be hit, for example, if there is a new outbreak and (the) U.S. is simply not engaged with WHO or the global response. And if that outbreak spreads within the U.S. … I think Canada will be the first one to be impacted given the movement of population between our two countries, trade and our fairly open borders.”

In a statement issued Tuesday, the World Health Organization said it “regrets” Trump’s decision.

“We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe,” it said, noting U.S. donations accounted for 18 per cent of the agency’s budget in 2023.

Pai said he would like to see the Canadian government — along with other G7 countries — “step up” and increase its support to the group.

But he noted Canada’s own political turmoil — including the Liberal leadership race to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump’s threat to slap punishing tariffs on the country — could make that unlikely.

“Our leaders are probably more worried about the tariffs than they are worried about anything else at this stage,” Pai said.

The U.S. pullout order comes as measles cases have risen in both the U.S. and Canada, he said, urging greater vaccination efforts.

”It’s actually pretty shocking for me, stunning for me, to see that in 2025 we’re dealing with measles in Canada or (the) U.S.,” Pai said.

“We cannot go back in time to a period where kids were getting paralyzed with polio or dying of measles and whooping cough. We had come a long, long way and we’re now starting to slip back and that’s very scary.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 21, 2025.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press