US stiffs WHO hundreds of millions as it officially withdrawals

US did not pay $278 million in 2024–2025 dues and millions more in promised funds.

See full article...

 

[s73v3r]

No one has made it through my bullshit detector. I’m tired of paying everyone else’s bills.

You absolutely the fuck are not. You are falling for bullshit, and you are actively making the world a worse place

 

[s73v3r]

You call it soft power. I call it bribes.

And you’d be lying

 

[thearcher]

The US is what? 8 trillion dollars in debt? If the world stops buying US debt, how long do you think your highly subsidised lifestyle will last?

Try 38 trillion dollars in debt...

 

[thearcher]

Have you checked my post history?

I work in healthcare in Detroit. I think we should be helping our own first.

We can help our own by preventing disease in other countries. By preventing that disease -- or rapidly treating epidemics of high mortality diseases that do occur -- we significantly reduce the chance that said disease reaches the US. An ounce of prevention and all that.

 

[C.M. Allen]

Try 38 trillion dollars in debt...

And pretty of much all of it is from cutting taxes to the wealthy and their corporate empires, over and over and over, for the last 50+ years. And which party kept pushing the 'cut taxes!' agenda. Oh, right -- Republicans.

Under Republican 'leadership' the US is tens of trillions of dollars in debt, and spiraling into economic collapse so fast that they're willing risk starting WWIII by forcibly capturing new capital sources to exploit just to stave off that collapse a few years longer. Truly the 'best' government money can buy....

 

[mpfaff]

You call it soft power. I call it bribes.

Have you looked at how much the US spends on foreign aid to countries that don’t need it? Why does Israel need $7B of US money. Egypt got 1.5B. These are rich countries that don’t need my earnings.

In the past 20 years we have given $150B to Afghanistan. How did that work out?

So the answer to that is to end a program that investigates and deals with deadly diseases overseas. Also to end programs that provided food and medicine to the poor and the sick in other countries. Makes perfect sense. We dump a bunch of money on Israel, so time for some kids in central Africa to deal with the consequences.

 

[solomonrex]

A great 'Christian nation', that threatens everyone, helps only the rich and breaks its word whenever convenient. What would Jesus do, I wonder?

Probably not claim a nation that won't turn a cheek, feed the hungry or render to Caesar.

 

[sleepyox]

Run the country like a business; stiff people you don't like on their contractually agreed upon payments. Now a future administration will get to pay back the missed payments with interest to get us linked back to the rest of the world.

It reminds me how organized crime calls themselves a business. The CIA was built to counter these "businesses" but organized crime took over the command of the CIA. And we thought Russia was overrun by mobsters.

 

[Madestjohn]

It's interesting that in so many sci-fi books I've read, the near future has the US becoming more insular and retreating from its leading role in the world. Was it inevitable, or just a requirement for the dystopian events that setup a good story?

Interesting how this stuff has become prophetic

 

[sleepyox]

... Their primary characteristics are sociopathy, narcissistic personality disorder, overweening greed, inferior empathy, an extraordinary ability to rationalize any action, no matter how heinous, as being required for the greater good. ..

I wonder if progress in the future will be able to limit unfettered capital power and ownership to only those passing the psycho test.

So far Warren Buffet has been altruistic, but there are too few of them, I'm surprised they haven't been victimized by the vampires or toppled in the mafia wars.

 

[mpfaff]

Please cite a case, since the inception of the WHO, where their actions prevented a disease from reaching the US. I don't believe there is a case, which means that the WHO is incompetent at that goal, which means that defunding them is a reasonable reaction.

Prove that something didn't happen or I win the Internet.

 

[mpfaff]

That's not what I asked for, but if you believe that it is the nature of the WHO's work that the effectiveness cannot be determined, why should we pay for it?

Why should we pay for police if crime also exists?

Wealthy countries fund the WHO for a reason, and it isn't altruism. Trump doesn't understand that because he's a very dull person, if there isn't tangible return on investment then he wants out. He's making this country weaker for it.

 

[floyd42]

So many avoidable deaths due to the whims of a seventy plus year old toddler.

So much damage done to the integrity of the US; who wants to support our country in the future if we don't pay our dues now?

Fake news!

Because seventy plus is an understatement, he's months away from being an 80 year old toddler.

 

[Snuden]

 

[Bondles_9]

Please cite a case, since the inception of the WHO, where their actions prevented a disease from reaching the US. I don't believe there is a case, which means that the WHO is incompetent at that goal, which means that defunding them is a reasonable reaction.

Know anyone who's caught smallpox or polio lately?

 

[spindizzy]

It reminds me how organized crime calls themselves a business. The CIA was built to counter these "businesses" but organized crime took over the command of the CIA. And we thought Russia was overrun by mobsters.

That post reads like a Copilot hallucination.

The CIA was built out of the bones of the OSS. It had nothing to do with organised crime. You're thinking about the FBI.
Both organisations have histories that are at best chequered and at worst murderous and corrupt. Look at the original FBI head's history for an example of a man who should have never been allowed to have that sort of power.
And look at the CIA's extensive inflitration by the KGB during the cold war to see what a bang up job they were doing too.
Nothing new in any of this.

 

[spindizzy]

Know anyone who's caught smallpox or polio lately?

Yeah but that's because we've stopped vaccinations for those obviously! /s

 

[Kitkoan]

Please cite a case, since the inception of the WHO, where their actions prevented a disease from reaching the US. I don't believe there is a case, which means that the WHO is incompetent at that goal, which means that defunding them is a reasonable reaction.

Smallpox.
Polio.
Measles and Rubella had been pretty much eliminated in the USA due to efforts from the WHO. (But thats changed due to other issues...)
Numerous others through vaccine initiatives that if they hadn't been involved in could have caused the diseases to spread to the USA.
I don't think you understand just how much WHO has done to help save the USA. This isn't the pre-aviation days anymore where a disease takes weeks to spread to other countries by boat and could be blocked before reaching shore. Diseases can jump the globe in hours due to people riding airplanes and the WHO have stopped so many diseases from getting out of control in one part of the world and then spreading to the USA.

 

[crepuscularbrolly]

Have you checked my post history?

I work in healthcare in Detroit. I think we should be helping our own first.

The hospital custodian also works in healthcare. shrug

 

[Kitkoan]

How about we provide food and medicine to the poor and sick in our own neighborhoods first.

That would be socialism, and good luck getting that vote through.

 

[A harmless pie]

I know it's useless to say so, but I'm just completely psychologically obliterated at the loss we Americans have suffered over the last year. I see fools in this very comment section talking about how others need to pay their bills, presumably because they believe America pays the way for others and that that's an injustice. I don't know how they don't understand the unrivaled advantage that Americans had on the world stage. It's gone. It's all gone. Forever.

When I was a child, there were times when we didn't have electricity or running water. We had to carry buckets up from a creek to pour into the toilet to flush it. That was when we lived in a house. Other times we lived out of the back of a car, showering at campsites and truck stops.

Eventually, my mother managed to get some public assistance, and though it wasn't perfect, it was easier. That journey makes me appreciate the ease I had as an American just a few years ago, and mourn its utterly pointless loss. There isn't a word for how disappointed I am in this country or the rage I feel at the people who think THIS is winning.

At any rate, leaving the WHO is another monumentally stupid mistake that will cause untold harm to all Americans. Throw it on top of the fucking pile. Jesus Christ.

 

[xWidget]

Smallpox.
Polio.
Measles and Rubella had been pretty much eliminated in the USA due to efforts from the WHO. (But thats changed due to other issues...)
Numerous others through vaccine initiatives that if they hadn't been involved in could have caused the diseases to spread to the USA.
I don't think you understand just how much WHO has done to help save the USA. This isn't the pre-aviation days anymore where a disease takes weeks to spread to other countries by boat and could be blocked before reaching shore. Diseases can jump the globe in hours due to people riding airplanes and the WHO have stopped so many diseases from getting out of control in one part of the world and then spreading to the USA.

And remember when SARS got into the US and killed millions of people?

Oh, right.

 

[crazedgironemo]

How about we provide food and medicine to the poor and sick in our own neighborhoods first.

Yes! The govt should come up with a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for food, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for medicine, and make it available to all the poor without any restrictions...


Oh wait...

 

[jdietz]

Just fuck us all right? Who needs health?

More like we need health information that can be controlled by political leaders and corporations (i.e., we have no use for uncontrolled information), and we don't need to help non-Americans with their health problems. /s in case it wasn't obvious.

 

[Abulia]

Everyone around me is looking for any EU alternative for US based services and products. Including cancelled vacation plans. The damage has been done, US will not be trusted again for a very long time.

I cannot blame you. I wouldn’t trust us either.

 

[Minties]

Time for other countries to step up and plug the hole, especially China which contributes less than 1% to the fund. The Netherlands and India contribute more than China. The rich Arab states hardly contribute anything relative to their wealth, they could contribute more. Pulling out of The Who however is not sensible, it would have been better to negotiate new rates and encourage others to contribute,

WHO information clearly shows China as the second largest assessed contributor to the World Health Organisation. Just look up WHO scale of assessments for 2026-2027 or for previous two year periods. The above commenter is providing misinformation.

 

[that guy strife]

Almost every Western leftist now believes in global institutions and a rules-based order, because their beliefs have been encoded into that order.

You say it, yet you don't understand it.

 

[The Sam]

Even if we start tomorrow, I'll be dead before we repair the damage this executive has done. And every day until I do die, I'll wake up and walk around with a deep, black anger in my heart about that.

 

[EmphyrioDonk]

So many avoidable deaths due to the whims of a seventy plus year old toddler.

So much damage done to the integrity of the US; who wants to support our country in the future if we don't pay our dues now?

It's not just that lying criminal Trump of course. What baffles me is that there are so many in the US that support him. It's Trump....and everyone else. No excuses.

 

[jonbob_newcastle]

You say it, yet you don't understand it.

A word of advice: don't pay any attention to people who use the word "leftist".

 

[Narayana]

Run the country like a business; stiff people you don't like on their contractually agreed upon payments. Now a future administration will get to pay back the missed payments with interest to get us linked back to the rest of the world...

Who said you should be allowed back into the community?
Remember, its not just your president that's unrelable, your entire government is unreliable anda untrustworthy. Heck, your country is lacking.
Who in their right mind would build a fountation for something in the future ... based on you?

Even if you oust the Great Orange One and his minions some day, the damage is to US reputation and credibility is wrecked for several decades. What's stopping you from rallying behind The Next Crazy in a few years? At best, you will be allowed back into stuff despite being the US ... not because you are the US.

The world moves on.
The US is left behind.
This is how empires die.

 

[itsaunixsystem]

Modern Republicans are the worst thing for Democracy and the Republic rule of law.

 

[papito10]

The Gang Brings Polio Back:

https://www.statnews.com/2026/01/22...ilhoan-individual-rights-trump-public-health/

 

[GCamomescro]

I suspect there is also a degree of classism. That is, the wealthy and powerful who run the party and manage their messaging can isolate in their homes, take deliveries, and send the help out to do chores. There is probably some level of "pandemics will thin out the useless and undesirable poors" to this as well.

Yep. But what these idiots don't realise is that these "poors" are the foundation their empire is built on. When that foundation fails, the whole thing collapses. I teach my students this exact concept so, hopefully, they have some respect for those not as wealthy as them.

 

[jlngu]

MAHA ha ha ha ha....