• The WHO's argument: The withdrawal is legally only complete when all financial obligations have been met.
• Washington's position: The U.S. government strictly refuses to pay the outstanding contributions for 2024 and 2025 – estimated at about $280 million. Rubio called the demand an "insult to the American taxpayer."

"The WHO has always respected the sovereignty of each state. We deliberated, but never imposed lockdowns or mask requirements - these were decisions of the respective governments," Tedros said.

• Budget collapse: The USA has so far financed around 15 to 20% of the WHO budget. The organization has already had to submit plans to lay off about 20% of its staff.
• Danger for programs: Programs to eradicate polio and fight malaria and tuberculosis, which depend largely on U.S. funds, are particularly affected.
• Loss of information: The US is losing its privileged access to real-time global data on new virus variants, which experts say is also weakening US national security.

• Financial dependence: Kennedy Jr. strongly criticizes the fact that the WHO is financed in large part by private donors (such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and pharmaceutical interests. From the US point of view, this means that the WHO is not neutral, but pushes the agenda of its donors (e.g. by focusing on large-scale vaccination campaigns instead of basic nutrition and health).

• Pandemic treaty: The negotiations on a new global pandemic treaty were seen by the US as an attempt to shift national competences to Geneva. The US government sees the danger that an unelected authority could impose lockdowns or medical protocols that contradict the US Constitution in the future.
• China's influence: The US accuses the WHO of being too uncritical of Beijing during the Corona pandemic. Rubio repeatedly referred to the organization as a "PR department for the Chinese Communist Party."

• Why put hundreds of millions of dollars into an organization that "discredited" the U.S. during the pandemic?
• Kennedy Jr. pursues the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) strategy. He prefers to invest the money directly in US research and in bilateral agreements with "trustworthy" partners, rather than see it disappear into a global pot over which Washington does not have full control.

In short, the U.S. sees the WHO as an organization that has lost its independence, is ideologically driven, and is asking U.S. taxpayers to pay to draft policies that could violate U.S. interests.

• Polio (polio): The U.S. (through the CDC) was the main partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. With the leak, access to the CDC's special laboratories for virus sequencing also ended. Experts warn of a resurgence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• HIV/AIDS & Hepatitis: According to WHO data from the end of 2024, the U.S. funded around 75% of this program. Without these funds, millions of people in Africa are at risk of losing access to antiretroviral therapies.
• Tuberculosis (TB): Here, the US bore about 61% of the burden. Because TB drugs have to be taken for long periods of time, discontinuation rates lead directly to new, multidrug-resistant strains.
• Malaria: WHO projections warn of up to 15 million additional cases and over 100,000 additional deaths per year as insecticide programs and drug distributions have been halted.

• Pandemic early warning systems: The US has withdrawn its experts from WHO hubs worldwide. This means that today, when a new virus (such as a mutated bird flu) emerges in Asia or Africa, the data no longer flows automatically and in real time into the US health care system.
• Standardization of medications: The WHO determines which ingredients are included in the annual flu vaccination. Without U.S. expertise and data, the accuracy of these predictions could decline worldwide.

• USAID freeze: Parallel to the WHO withdrawal, the Trump administration has frozen USAID funds for 90 days. This particularly affects the logistics for vaccines and clean water in war zones.

• Staff reductions: By mid-2026, about 2,370 jobs will be cut (around 25% of the global workforce).
• Office closures: In Geneva, the number of departments is halved; regional branch offices are merged or closed completely.
• Financial gap: Despite an increase in compulsory contributions by other countries (such as Germany or Japan), the WHO is missing about 280 to 300 million dollars from the USA alone for the current two-year cycle.

Conclusion: The withdrawal is not a mere administrative act. It is a turning point that affects the poorest in the world in particular. While the U.S. is trying to reorganize its aid through direct (bilateral) treaties, the "safety net" that the WHO has built for decades for global epidemics is breaking open at critical points, probably for reasons of greed and insufficient competences within the WHO.
Furthermore, private investors such as Bill Gates are massively networked within the WHO, especially through his foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). He is considered one of the most influential players in global health policy.
Here is the structure of his networking:
1. Financial dependence
The Gates Foundation has been the second largest donor to the WHO for years, right after the USA.

• Budget share: Between 2010 and 2023, donations from the Foundation accounted for around 9.5% of total WHO revenue.
• Power vacuum 2026: Since the US under the current administration has announced its withdrawal from the WHO for January 2026, the Gates Foundation could become the de facto largest donor if state actors such as Germany do not completely fill this gap.
• Gates is not only directly connected to the WHO, but has created an entire ecosystem of organizations that work closely with the WHO.

• He creates markets for products in which his foundation holds shares.
• He uses his capital to set the political course at the WHO (e.g. the focus on patents instead of the free exchange of knowledge).
• The result: It determines what the world needs and at the same time delivers the solution via its network. It's a closed cycle.

• This is exactly what was simulated: a coronavirus outbreak that jumps from bats to humans and triggers a global pandemic.
• Critics say: This was no coincidence, but the dress rehearsal for what was carried out politically and economically shortly afterwards.

• He has bought the status of a "substitute head of state".
• When the US leaves the WHO in 2026 under the new administration, Gates will be the one who keeps the organization alive – and thus also decides what it does.

• Binding recommendations: The amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR), which came into force in September 2025, strengthened the status of the WHO recommendations. Although they are not legally enforceable (there is no "WHO police"), a state that resists comes under massive international political and economic pressure.
• The "pandemic case": The Director-General of the WHO continues to have the sole power to declare an "international health emergency". This automatically triggers global mechanisms (supply chain control, financial flows) that push a state into an imbalance from which it can hardly escape.

 "Questioning is not an act of mistrust, but a duty of reason. Those who not only consume the truth, but actively seek it, get to know the complex architecture of global dependencies."