Argentina formalizes withdrawal from World Health Organization

Argentina has officially left the World Health Organization (WHO), the agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. A year after requesting its withdrawal, the process has been completed, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno announced. President Javier Milei’s administration had informed its decision to leave the organization in February 2025, and sent a notification requesting withdrawal on March 17 of last year.  The move was in line with United States President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the WHO last year, a process that was completed in January. “Our country will continue to promote international cooperation in healthcare through our bilateral agreements and regional frameworks, while fully safeguarding its sovereignty and its decision-making authority regarding health policies,” Quirno said in an X post. Argentina was a founding member of the WHO since its birth in 1948. Last year, presidential spokesman — and current Chief of Staff — Manuel Adorni had explained that the decision to pull out from the organization was due to “deep differences” over how the WHO managed the COVID-19 pandemic, a similar argument to the one Trump used when he announced the U.S. withdrawal. Adorni said that the WHO’s management of the pandemic, along with decisions made by former Argentine President Alberto Fernández, “led [the country] to the longest lockdown in human history” and made Argentina vulnerable to “certain countries’ political influence.” “Argentines won’t allow an international organization to intervene in our sovereignty, much less in our health,” Adorni said. As part of the United Nations, the organization’s goal is to lead global efforts to expand universal health coverage and promote healthier lives, as well as “direct and coordinate the world’s response to health emergencies,” its website reads. It cannot impose or dictate public policies in any country, but merely make recommendations and encourage member countries to follow its guidelines. While the government has claimed that exiting the WHO will not affect healthcare in Argentina, critics argue that it will affect important components of the country’s public health system, including vaccine purchases and outbreak monitoring. “This decision leaves our country out of international coordination processes in case of pandemics, and weakens multilateralism as well as instances of global governance,” said the International Relations Institute of the National University of La Plata last year, when the decision to leave the WHO was announced.  Leandro Cahn, director of the HIV prevention nonprofit Fundación Huésped, posted on X in February 2025 that leaving the WHO would affect Argentina’s capacity to monitor outbreaks and participate in technology transfer. “We would not be able to buy vaccines and HIV treatments through their rotating fund, which makes costs significantly cheaper,” he wrote.