CDC staff were ordered Jan. 27 to cease all work with the World Health Organization, according to The Washington Post and the Associated Press. This marks a sudden move in the federal government’s plan to leave the WHO by January 2026.
An internal memo sent to CDC leaders instructed staff to immediately cease “engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means — in person or virtual,” both the Post and AP reported.
The agency’s deputy director for global health, John Nkengasong, PhD, told senior leaders in the memo that CDC employees also cannot visit WHO offices.
The message was sent the morning of Jan. 27, a week after President Donald Trump took office and signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the WHO.
The U.S. will fully exit the WHO by Jan. 22, 2026, Reuters reported. In the meantime, the U.S. will pause the transfer of funds, support and resources to the WHO; review, revoke and replace the 2024 U.S. Global Health Security Strategy; and recall and reassign U.S. government contractors or personnel working with the WHO.
Healthcare groups representing physicians, nurses and infection control professionals have criticized the decision to end the nation’s involvement with the WHO. And with this latest move, officials and public health experts expressed concern — especially amid outbreaks of bird flu in the U.S., Marburg virus in central Africa and mpox in 115 countries.
“Stopping communications and meetings with WHO is a big problem,” Jeffrey Klausner, MD, a University of Southern California public health expert who works with the WHO on sexually transmitted infections, told the AP. “People thought there would be a slow withdrawal. This has really caught everyone with their pants down.”
The CDC and other federal health agencies are also under a freeze on external communications, which is effective through lift Feb. 1.
