RFK Jr. Slams World Health Organization In Message To Group’s Annual Meeting

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ripped into the World Health Organization (WHO) as a “moribund” institution under undue influence from China in a Tuesday message to the organization’s governing assembly. 

In a video message shown at the World Health Assembly in Switzerland on Tuesday, Kennedy called for nations to follow America’s lead and create new health-focused institutions. His address comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January withdrawing the United States from the WHO, citing its handling of the COVID pandemic and “onerous payments.”

“Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international power politics,” Kennedy said Tuesday. “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.”

During COVID, Kennedy said that the WHO suppressed reports of human-to-human transmission and worked at the behest of China to promote the “fiction” that COVID originated from bats and not a government-sponsored lab in Wuhan. 

“Not only has the WHO capitulated to political pressure from China, it’s also failed to maintain an organization characterized by transparency and fair governance by and for its Member States,” Kennedy said. “The WHO often acts like it has forgotten that its members must remain accountable to their own citizens and not to transnational or corporate interests.”

He said the international health body has reflected the biases of corporate medicine and has pushed “harmful gender ideology” at the expense of wellness. 

Kennedy said he would like to see other public health officials reboot their entire systems, pointing to the changes he has implemented in the United States. He cited his department’s focus on chronic health issues, removing dyes and additives from food, investigating the cause of autism, and moving away from processed foods. 

“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,” he said. “I urge the world’s health ministers and the WHO to take our withdrawal from the organization as a wake-up call.”

The World Health Assembly is made up of member nations that determine the WHO’s policies, budget, and leadership.

Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international power politics. While the United States has provided the lion’s share of the organization’s funding historically, other countries such as… pic.twitter.com/VvWbVBkb6M

— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) May 20, 2025