Argentine President Javier Milei has ordered the country\u2019s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) <\/i>due to \u201cdeep differences\u201d with the UN agency, an Argentine presidential spokesman announced on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
President Milei\u2019s decision mirrors that of his ally, US President Donald Trump, who initiated the process of withdrawing the United States from the WHO with a decree on his first day in office on January 21.<\/p>\n
Argentina was expected to contribute just $8 million toward the WHO\u2019s estimated $6.9 billion 2024-2025 budget.<\/p>\n
Spokesperson Manuel Adorni told a press conference in Buenos Aires that Argentina\u2019s decision was based on \u201cprofound differences in health management, especially during the (COVID-19) pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adorni stated that WHO guidelines at the time led to the largest lockdown \u201cin human history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina would not allow an international organization to interfere in its sovereignty, the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
Adorni did not specify when Milei\u2019s decision would be implemented. He also claimed, without naming specific countries, that the WHO lacked independence due to the political influence of some member states.<\/p>\n
Milei had sharply criticized the curfew imposed by former President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez during the pandemic, arguing that it had damaged the economy and that the government was using it as a mechanism of \u201crepression.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLIVE FREEDOM,\u201d Milei wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday in a post criticizing the UN agency.<\/p>\n
Adorni emphasized that Argentina does not receive funding from the WHO for health management and that the president\u2019s decision would not affect the quality of health care.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the contrary, it provides greater flexibility to implement policies adopted in the context of the interests that Argentina needs,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Milei government refused to sign an agreement to manage epidemics within the framework of the WHO, citing concerns that it could undermine national sovereignty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentine President Javier Milei has ordered the country\u2019s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) due to \u201cdeep differences\u201d with the UN agency, an Argentine presidential spokesman announced on Wednesday. President Milei\u2019s decision mirrors that of his ally, US President Donald Trump, who initiated the process of withdrawing the United States from the WHO with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[1511,6179,6176,319,6178,6177,6175,6181,6182,1601,6180,4367,6174,4526,6173],"class_list":["post-7693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diplomacy","tag-argentina","tag-buenos-aires","tag-covid-19-pandemic","tag-donald-trump","tag-epidemic-management","tag-global-health","tag-health-policy","tag-healthcare-funding","tag-international-organizations","tag-javier-milei","tag-national-sovereignty","tag-sovereignty","tag-un-agency","tag-who","tag-world-health-organization"],"yoast_head":"\n