RFK Jr. Addresses the World Health Assembly in a Pre-Recorded Video

On May 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a press release announcing pre-recorded video remarks by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in which he articulated the Trump Administration’s decision to fully withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). The video aired that same day during the Seventy-Eighth World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, and was published on the social media platform X.

“Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international power politics,” Secretary Kennedy said in the video. “While the United States has provided the lion’s share of the organization’s funding historically, other countries such as China have exerted undue influence over its operations in ways that serve their own interests and not particularly the interests of the global public.”

In the recording, RFK Jr. criticized the newly-approved WHO pandemic agreement, stating that “Global cooperation on health is still critically important to President Trump and myself, but it isn’t working very well under the WHO, as the failures of the COVID era demonstrate….WHO has not even come to terms with its failures during COVID, let alone made significant reforms.”

Secretary Kennedy closed his remarks in the video by inviting “health ministers around the world into a new era of cooperation,” calling for his international colleagues to “create new institutions or revisit existing institutions that are lean, efficient, transparent, and accountable.”

The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of the WHO. Delegations from all WHO member states attend it and focus on a specific health agenda prepared by the executive board. This year, the World Health Assembly is being held from May 19 to May 27. Its theme is One World for Health.