US Formally Withdraws From WHO (nytimes.com) 307
The United States formally withdrew from the World Health Organization on Thursday, making good on an executive order that President Trump issued on his first day in office pledging to leave the international organization that coordinates global responses to public health threats. The New York Times: While the United States is walking away from the organization, a senior official with the Department of Health and Human Services told reporters on Thursday that the Trump administration was considering some type of narrow, limited engagement with W.H.O. global networks that track infectious diseases, including influenza.
As a W.H.O. member, the United States long sent scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to participate in international decision-making about which strains to include in the flu vaccine. A W.H.O. meeting on next year's vaccine is scheduled for February. The official said the Trump administration would soon disclose how or whether it will participate.
On Thursday, the administration said that all U.S. government funding to the organization had been terminated, and that all assigned federal employees and contractors had been recalled from its Geneva headquarters and its offices worldwide.
As a W.H.O. member, the United States long sent scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to participate in international decision-making about which strains to include in the flu vaccine. A W.H.O. meeting on next year's vaccine is scheduled for February. The official said the Trump administration would soon disclose how or whether it will participate.
On Thursday, the administration said that all U.S. government funding to the organization had been terminated, and that all assigned federal employees and contractors had been recalled from its Geneva headquarters and its offices worldwide.
Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:4, Insightful)
One nice thing is this will help to reduce the world's population, thus helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.
They'd be so upset if they knew they were helping the planet recover.
Re: Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:2)
I honestly think that is the real motivation: Let the foreigners die faster, so there will be less total competition for resources.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
We have 8 billion+ people on the planet. We can afford to lose a billion or so and not affect our ability to advance science. Having fewer people would definitely enhance wellbeing as there would be less pollution which means cleaner air and water. Less trash would be produced as well.
Clearly we had no problem with scientific advancements when our population was lower. With what we have now, why would you think fewer people would change that?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Our real problem is longer life spans and people living longer, much longer after they have retired. In the meantime, birthrates worldwide are imploding, not just in the West, but even in the most populous ones - China, India,.... At this rate, there won't be enough people for the workforce (which may not be a problem if AI succeeds in filling any gaps in the workload), but there will be more retirees than ever
Maybe we can wait for humanity to go extinct, and then "watch" what happens to the world in te
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
This comment for the win. It's important to remember that a hell of a lot of amazing advances were made in the 20th century when the population started out at about 1.75 billion in 1900 and ended at about 6 billion in 2000. I really doubt there's an advantage to having 8 billion instead of 6, or even 4 - it doesn't drive markets or innovation any faster, except that perhaps people are suffering *more* due to malnutrition and inability to access medical services; but those calamities don't appear to be drivi
Re:Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:5, Informative)
While we are not heading for some population bomb doomsday scenario, even at current population levels and resource utilization rates, we are headed for a cliff sometime in the next couple of hundred of years, if not sooner. Much of our farming relies on aquifers that are being drained faster than they are naturally replenished, and fertilizer that uses phosphorus dug up from mines. Both of these resources are used one and then are basically flushed into the ocean, with very little effort made towards recovery and re-use. Global warming is only going to exacerbate the water use issue as water cycles around the world are disrupted.
Of course there are sustainable production techniques that can keep a piece of land arable indefinitely without resorting to fossil fertilizer or fossil water, but these techniques don't produce at the levels that modern economies and populations demand. They also aren't suitable for use everywhere we want to grow corps. America's breadbasket is really not great farmland absent supplementation. There's a reason it was covered with prairie grass and not lush forest when we got there: it's a semi-arid biome subject to frequent drought and fire. There's not enough native rainfall to sustain growing corn and alfalfa and soybean.
This isn't an argument that like we need to kill a bunch of people or let them starve or whatever. Fuck the people who make those arguments. But we should try to figure out what a world with like 3 or 4 billion people in it looks like. How can we restructure our economy so that it doesn't collapse in the face of birthrates below replacement? What do we need to maintain an industrialized society with far fewer workers, and hopefully, workers who aren't exploited as unequally as they are now?
In terms of needing specialists: we "waste" so many people by forcing them to live lives without access to education and job training. If everyone had access to clean living conditions, healthcare, food, and higher education, then you would need so many people to maintain our standard of living because resources would be more equitably shared among fewer people.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:2)
In 1940 the world had a population about 2.3 billion
It is currently about 8.3 billion. In less than a century we tripled the planetary population.
Even if every country has a 3 decades of negative growth it will be 60 years before we drop below 7 billion people.
Or three times the population we had in 1940
The rapidly rising population is what drove the growth of everything. A slowly declining population will drag everyone down for decades
Going the way of the dinosaurs? (Score:3)
Actually reminds me of teaching basic English debate to Japanese students. Most years I used a debate proposition about smoking cigarettes and killing people off was one of the stronger affirmative arguments that got used pretty often.
Currently reading T. Rex and the Crater of Doom and it has me thinking about extinction events again. The book is about a large one provoked by a major disaster, and I actually don't believe we humans yet have that capability, even with all of our nuclear bombs. However I th
Re: (Score:3)
I sure hope there's some good Funny on the story. But I sure ain't gonna hold my breath on it.
The members of the current administration have all served with extinction?
Sorry, a bad pun was the best I could come up with.
Re:Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:5, Interesting)
We can definitely see that this is true, because they've killed a lot of people already.
https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/... [harvard.edu]
https://responsiblestatecraft.... [responsibl...ecraft.org]
https://theintercept.com/2025/... [theintercept.com]
Re: Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Excerpted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Country | Deaths / million | Vs. USA
- - -
United States | 3608 | 1.00x
United Kingdom | 3404 | 0.94x
European Union | 2829 | 0.78x
Canada | 142
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
so was donald john trump president in 2020 or was he not or is this just unfathomable cope
trump shares quite a bit of responsibility because it all happened under his watch, the executive should be helping to coordinate the states with the cdc and hhs setting reasonable guidelines
all of us here should have been alive in 2020 and i remember the president instead of standing at the peak and being a leader instead decided to once again be divisive and use partisan politics to pit states against eachother and t
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe the rest of the world can step up. Big opportunity to replace the US now. China is a big contributor, maybe they will. The EU should.
Fred Thompson said it best (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:5, Insightful)
It's unfortunate for Americans that didn't vote for this nonsense have to live through the experience of knowing our country is now a villain on the world stage. There have always been things to be ashamed of, but until now it's always been easy to at least convince yourself the US does more good than bad. That is unfortunately the past now.
Re: (Score:2)
"our country is now a villain on the world stage". Only now. Yeah... riiiiight.
Re:Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:5, Informative)
It is very difficult for an honest person to foresee the level to which dishonest people will stoop to. That democrat president was guilty of wishful thinking and that's about all.
Re: (Score:2)
Then why didn't he say "i hope you can keep your plan, and I hope you can keep your doctors." Perhaps it was lack of honesty on his part, or perhaps on the part of his speechwriters since he was at best, mute, and at worst, lost, without a TelePrompTer.
Re: Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:2)
Also it would be easy for Obama to make the assumption that people wouldn't vote against ACA if they wanted it. His words could be read to mean if they want it, they can keep voting for it and then they would keep it. It never ceases to amaze me how Americans vote for people who are clearly against their interests. No one could have predicted that they would have allowed in someone so bad for them. Because up until now people believed in Democracy.
Re: (Score:2)
That's a rash assumption. I presume that you think that European, Asian, Oceanic, and African governments aren't going to make up the monetary and intellectual deficits left by the USA's withdrawal?
MAGA "logic" (Score:2, Insightful)
MAGAs' reasoning is often that because subject matter experts are sometimes wrong, their special Jesus-induced gut-feelings are more accurate. But such SJIGF's have proven even worse than experts in the past. (It was called "alchemy" and "snake-oil".)
"But those in the past were the wrong sect" or whatnot is given as an excuse. Whether that's true or not, the current group of SJIGF's needs to demonstrate their accuracy over a reasonable time before we allow them to override experts. "Just trust us because we
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure they would call it forwards into stupidity. They're not looking over their shoulders - they're deliberately marching into wilful ignorance and saying "Yup! That's where we wanna be! That's the future!"
Re:Backwards into stupidity we go (Score:4, Informative)
You mean the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. [unroca.org] It's not a gun registry in the sense I think you're trying to imply. It's a database that's intended to track transfers of military arms (tanks, aircraft, ships, etc.) between countries.
I don't see the USA withdrawing from either as a Good Thing (TM).
Re: (Score:2)
The USA already has a privately run gun registry, the NRA.
Third world country status attained (Score:5, Insightful)
Great job, y'all.
Re: (Score:2)
More like "Shithole country status attained".
Re:Third world country status attained (Score:5, Insightful)
Great job, y'all.
Err Third World Countries are still members of the WHO. I think there's a special status required to describe the USA at this point.
The dumbification of the population is in full (Score:2)
swing. The dumber the population the more votes they can get.
whose slogan is “Well it happened.” (Score:5, Funny)
Pete Hegseth will now head up its replacement: the World Infection Organization, which will operate under the new Office of Preventable Outcomes.
Re: (Score:2)
Pete Hegseth will now head up its replacement: the World Infection Organization.
More like the "World Health Infection Federal Foundation" (WHIFF) - you could say he's taking a whiff at it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: whose slogan is “Well it happened.&rdquo (Score:5, Funny)
Better known as the Preventable Outcomes Office (POO)
Re: whose slogan is “Well it happened.&r (Score:3)
more like Preventable Events Directorate Office
Re: (Score:2)
That's horrible! RFK Jr. *earned* that post, dammit!
Yes, but we're in the Board of Peace! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes, but we're in the Board of Peace! (Score:4, Informative)
The Board of Peace [cnbc.com] is more remarkable when you consider who is not on it. Hint: no major European or North American allies of the USA. Canada was on it, until Trump un-friended Prime Minister Mark Carney for making a trade deal with China.
And as for who is on it, and from what country, here's the list:
Isa bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, minister of the prime minister’s court, Bahrain
Nasser Bourita, minister of foreign affairs, Morocco
Javier Milei, president, Argentina
Nikol Pashinyan, prime minister, Armenia
Ilham Aliyev, President, Azerbaijan
Rosen Zhelyazkov, prime minister, Bulgaria
Viktor Orban, prime minister, Hungary
Prabowo Subianto, president, Indonesia
Ayman Al Safadi, minister of foreign affairs, Jordan
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, president, Kazakhstan
Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu, president, Kosovo
Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, prime minister, Pakistan
Santiago Peña, president, Paraguay
Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, prime minister, Qatar
Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, minister of foreign affairs, Saudi Arabia
Hakan Fidan, minister of foreign affairs, Turkey
Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, special envoy to the U.S. for the UAE
Shavkat Mirziyoyev, president, Uzbekistan
Gombojavyn Zandanshatar, prime minister, Mongolia
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for the improvement. I just posted my own correction below.
Re: (Score:3)
Carney provisionally accepted pending more details, but then was uninvited by the Toddler-in-Chief who had a hissy fit at Carney's Davos speech.
Re:Yes, but we're in the Board of Peace! (Score:4, Insightful)
Correction: Trump revoked his invitation to Canadian PM Mark Carney because Carney showed insufficient "gratitude" for the support Trump feels the USA provides Canada. Trump said Canada "lives because of the United States" and Carney disagreed. Canada had not shown a willingness to participate anyway, citing concerns about the governance of the board.
Re: (Score:2)
More like the board of fleece
or the "Board of Fleas"
Makes sense (Score:2)
As the CDC said, disease is the cost of doing business
Re: (Score:3)
As Trump's CDC Deputy Director Dr. Ralph Abraham said in January 2026, disease is the cost of doing business
FTFY.
Years needed to undo the stupidity (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Years needed to undo the stupidity (Score:5, Informative)
"Years"?!?
This will take decades to undo, if not generations (if ever).
Re:Years needed to undo the stupidity (Score:5, Insightful)
Historically, the way to reverse this is, well, invasion, revolution, or coup.
I can only imagine the tightrope that hegseth is blundering through right now. His purge of military leadership could backfire on him at any moment. His survival depends on the very professionalism and non partisan culture that he is actively dismantling.
Re:Years needed to undo the stupidity (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure, the US might elect a sane person again one day, along with a sane majority in Congress, but then four years later you'll just elect another maniac.
Your country not trustworthy and is hopelessly broken.
I mean how insane is it that our Government made the decision that in 2026 business with CHINA was a safer bet than business with the USA? Madness.
Re:Years needed to undo the stupidity (Score:4, Interesting)
What a screwball point of view to call out Canada as antagonizing the US, when the US started a trade war with Canada and has gone so far as to actually threaten annexation. And you think Canada doesn't spend money on its military? It has a massive military for a country of its population size, and has an equally massive reputation both for its peacekeeping and participation in major wars. Canada has been the U.S.'s best trading partner since WWII. "Subsidizing" is a bullshit term for trade deficits. The U.S. does not "subsidize" Canada with a trade deficit any more than Canada "subsidizes" the U.S. with cheap, secure oil and billions of investment dollars.
Re:Years needed to undo the stupidity (Score:4, Interesting)
Canada is doubling its military spending this year, up to over $60B, at 2% of GDP. I don't know what goalposts you need to keep moving to get from "not having to spend any money on military" to "next to nothing on military" to eventually get to those numbers, but good luck with that.
Re: (Score:2)
has 70s-era helicopters falling out of the sky and 80s-era used submarines that are not seaworthy. Seriously, look it up.
[Citations needed]
Re:Years needed to undo the stupidity (Score:5, Insightful)
So much there in that short paragraph. Saying Canada shouldn't antagonize Trump is fine, but the problem is there's *nothing* we can do that *won't* antagonize him and nothing we can do to placate him, short of inviting him to come be a king. What can Greenland do to not antagonize him (what can Ukraine do to not antagonize Putin)? See the problem?
The last trade agreement trump himself signed granted quite a bit of access to the Canadian dairy market up to a certain cap, which has never been reached, so those high diary tariffs have never been levied. Trump is lying about them. But even further, if Canada opened up the the entire dairy market, while it would destroy the entire Canadian dairy industry in one fell swoop it would hardly register as a blip on the scope for the fortunes of American dairy. A lot of American companies don't realize how small the Canadian market is compared to the entire US market. Canada is littered with the corpses of US companies who tried to enter completely unprotected markets. Lowes and Target to name two. Besides that, to eliminate the trade imbalance Canadians would have to buy 10 times the number of US products. How many cars does Trump want us to buy? 10 per person?
As far as tariffs go, you want the US to reduce its "subsidization" of Canada by... taxing Americans? It's absolutely bonkers to me how GOP voters are so excited about some of the biggest tax raises the US has had in decades. Yes tariffs hurt Canada and drag our economy down. Congrats on that. But they are a tax on US citizens!
As far as broken relationships go, so many of my friends and relatives in the US think that things will go back to normal after Trump's done in three years. But I just don't see any possible way that's going to happen.
Re:Years needed to undo the stupidity (Score:5, Interesting)
It is madness that PM Carney decided that antagonizing US is the right move for Canada.
You're going to have to explain this one. What did Canada do to antagonize the US? Wasn't cheeto calling Canada the 51st state and talking about annexation? The PM offers a coherent speech and of the thinnest skinned person of all gets upset.
Canada currently enjoys one of the lowest tariffs of any country
You do understand that we're paying tariffs and not Canada?
Re: (Score:2)
I mean how insane is it that our Government made the decision that in 2026 business with CHINA was a safer bet than business with the USA? Madness.
It is madness that PM Carney decided that antagonizing US is the right move for Canada. All heated rhetoric aside, Canada currently enjoys one of the lowest tariffs of any country while still enjoying its domestic protectionism for dairy/etc. and while not having to spend any money on military that afford many social programs that are above and beyond what is available in US. You might not like to admit it, but US subsidizes Canada's standard of living a great deal and reduction in these subsidies is warranted.
The USA currently enjoys one of the lowest tariffs in Canada of any country while still enjoying its domestic protectionism.
It works both ways. Read up on MFN and 'reciprocity'.
Re: (Score:2)
has 70s-era helicopters falling out of the sky and 80s-era used submarines that are not seaworthy. Seriously, look it up.
[Citation needed]
Re: (Score:2)
That's exactly what Trump WANTS PEOPLE TO THINK!! Don't speak out against Trump or bad things will happen! This is how Trump controls everyone! Well you know what, that was tried for a year and bad things happened anyway. The only way to stop a bully is to stand up to him without sinking to his level and that is what Carney is doing.
Posted as AC because I upvoted some comments that deserved it.
Re: (Score:2)
Canada disproportionately benefits from the relationship.
Show your work.
Re: (Score:3)
Canada is also very protectionist of its domestic industries, diary, eggs, meat, lumber, etc. are all highly regulated in Canada in a way to prevent US from entering these markets.
If this is true then you have to admit one of Trumps signature policies, one of the few he actually got passed and spent like 1/2 of his first term was a complete failure. What was the point of spending all that effort to re-negotiate NAFTA just to end up complaining about the same shit 5 years later? All of this shit was already negotiated by Trump himself so why is it a problem now?
United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
The orange turd calls its own deal "a terrible deal".
Re: (Score:2)
has 70s-era helicopters falling out of the sky and 80s-era used submarines that are not seaworthy. Seriously, look it up.
[Citations needed]
Re: (Score:3)
None of your post makes any sense at all.
Trump made the mocking comments to Carney's predecessor, Justin Trudeau. At the time Trump made the comments, he had no idea Trudeau would resign, nor did he have any idea Carney would take his place.
And Trudeau resigned because he didn't think his party could win an election with him at the helm, not because Trump mocked him.
As for Polievre, he was Canadian MAGA. Trump could not have asked for a better ally in Ottawa, and he blew it by mouthing off about the "51st s
Re:Years needed to undo the stupidity (Score:5, Informative)
Eventually there will be a sane person leading USA again, unfortunately a lot of time of that term will be needed just to reverse all the current stupidity..
As far as the rest of NATO is concerned, especially the UK following Trumps unbelievable insult about our troops in Afghanistan where he said we weren't near the front line, you're going to be way longer than one term or even one consecutively twice elected President before those bridges Trump has dynamited get rebuilt. Trump with that one flippant remark in his Fox News interview has managed to piss off pretty much all of the public in the UK, a nation that doesn't fetishize it's military like the US does. The Liberal Democrat Party President Josh Babarinde MP even posted on X "Trump can go fuck himself." The UK public is rapidly turning away from the US and all things US.
Just put tariffs on countries with diseases... (Score:5, Funny)
Meah.... nothing to worry about.
The US has never been healthier than during this presidency. It is amazing how good the presidency is. He deserves Nobel Prize in Medicine for that.
If anything happens there is 3 level ironclad disease protection:
1. sue anyone complaining about it
2. threaten countries with diseases with tariffs
3. blame Biden for everything
Re: (Score:3)
I thought Fauci was their scapegoat.
Re: (Score:3)
And don't forget, he single handedly stopped autism a few months ago. Two Nobel prizes in medicine then.
And yes, that was sarcasm. Poe's law is very true.
Republicans are out of ideas (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
It's the circuses without the bread
I'd say it's an all-inbred circus.
Re: (Score:2)
has 70s-era helicopters falling out of the sky and 80s-era used submarines that are not seaworthy. Seriously, look it up.
[Citation needed]
Grammar Correction (Score:5, Funny)
+1 (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Several good Funnies on this story, but this has my vote for funniest.
Self own, that'll show em' (Score:3)
The Enshitfication of America (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Prove US wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, we know which territory is having a completely preventable measles outbreak on account of it embracing anti-vaxxing, so there's no need to guess.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Spots and flares, man, but I need no vaccine poisons, the blue blood of blonde Jesus is my vaccine.
Re: Prove US wrong (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Proof that the stupidity is leaking. There are smooth brains in Canada flying trump flags.
Re: (Score:2)
During spring break, experts like infectious disease specialist Brian Conway worry that unvaccinated Canadians travelling to areas with high measles rates, particularly in the southern United States, could spark a further spread in Canada in the coming weeks.
Some of it, yeah.
Re:Prove US wrong (Score:4, Interesting)
Only 1/80th the budget of ICE https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21... [npr.org]
Re: Prove US wrong (Score:2)
A lot of Americans seem ..... very very bad with numbers
Re: Prove US wrong (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I realise throwing around words like "communism" and "socialism" is a reliable way to get people in the USA to vote against their own interests, but it doesn't work on the rest of the world.
Re: Hopefully this kills them (Score:2)
Sorry I thought that was what "woke" meant.
It's hard to keep track
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You couldn't explain any of the *ism insults without googling them.
Re: (Score:2)
This is 2026, not 1955. Calling someone a communist is not fighting words.
Re: (Score:2)
What are your reasons?
Re: (Score:2)
Because the USSR was the reason for the UN, and Russia is currently failing to beat Ukraine. Therefore, the UN can't possibly be necessary.
Re: (Score:2)
The USSR was a founding charter member of the UN. [wikipedia.org] It was one of the five permanent members of the Security Council. It had a veto, and still does, through its continued membership as the Russian Federation.
Re: (Score:2)
The UN is a cash sink,
Facts and figures please.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
So much stupidity and ignorance said so confidently. Can't wait for the US to break all new records for people dying of preventable diseases, but at least you showed them darn libs, eh?
Re: (Score:2)
Sadly they never invented a vaccine for lead paint chips.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
has 70s-era helicopters falling out of the sky and 80s-era used submarines that are not seaworthy. Seriously, look it up.
[Citation needed]
Re: (Score:2)
has 70s-era helicopters falling out of the sky and 80s-era used submarines that are not seaworthy. Seriously, look it up.
[Citations needed]