Robert F. Kennedy Jr calls WHO 'moribund', urges others to quit

By Emma Farge

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the World Health Organization as bloated and "moribund" in a video shown to global health officials meeting on Tuesday for the body's annual assembly in Geneva.

The U.N. agency's top donor, the United States, announced it would withdraw from the WHO on the first day of Donald Trump's presidency, leaving the organisation with a massive budget shortfall that it is seeking to address through reforms at this week's assembly.

"I urge the world's health ministers and the WHO to take our withdrawal from the organisation as a wake-up call," he said in a video recorded on Fox News and then streamed to the assembly.

"We've already been in contact with like-minded countries and we encourage others to consider joining us," he said.

His speech did not prompt any immediate response from the assembly. Diplomats and ministers mostly watched the address in silence.

Trump has accused the WHO of mishandling COVID and of being too close to China - allegations it denies.

Kennedy is an environmental lawyer who has long sown doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that have helped curb disease and prevented millions of deaths for decades, and clashed with U.S. lawmakers last week in a hearing disrupted by protesters.

In his comments to the WHO, Kennedy called it "mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest and international power politics."

"We don't have to suffer the limits of a moribund WHO – let's create new institutions or revisit existing institutions that are lean, efficient, transparent and accountable," he said.

Kennedy's comments were broadcast hours after WHO member states adopted an agreement on Tuesday to better prepare for future pandemics.

Kennedy said the accord would "lock in all the dysfunctions of the WHO pandemic response."