How News Sources Portray World Health Organization Policies
This chart shows how major news sources across the ideological spectrum frame world health organization policies, from left to right-leaning perspectives.
In contemporary politics, many topics are becoming increasingly polarizing and highly partisan, one of which is the United States’ contribution to the World Health Organization. News sites often have biased news towards one side, which unfairly covers important topics. Policy stances on the World Health Organization and U.S. health policies tend to be biased and highly partisan, and are a subject for debate when candidates are running for top office.
The World Health Organization, known as WHO, is a specialized United Nations agency that connects nations and communities to promote health and ensure global well-being. Its main goal is to provide equal health opportunities to everyone, everywhere (i.e., expanding universal healthcare coverage).
World Health Organization Policies
The WHO has seven main policies listed on its website:
- Disability
- Ethics
- Multilingualism
- Preventing sexual exploitation
- Privacy
- Publishing
- Sustainability
For example, the WHO Office of Compliance, Risk Management, and Ethics (CRE) encourages transparency and management of corporate-level risk and promotes ethical principles from the international civil service standards. The CRE provides confidential ethics advice, promotes ethics awareness and standards, and more. The WHO also prioritizes environmental sustainability and aligns with the UN 2020-2030 Strategy for sustainable management. The WHO has its own Environmental Management Procedures (EMP) to handle its internal environmental due diligence practices and promote energy-efficient practices.
The WHO has recently placed its focus on widespread disease, mainly because of the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re working on the Zika epidemic, the spread of communicable diseases (such as HIV, malaria, Ebola, and tuberculosis), and chronic diseases (such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer). They seek to unite countries to confront the largest health challenges.
Current U.S. Health Policies
From 2020 to the present, U.S policies on healthcare have changed a great deal, partly because of the dramatic changes in the presidency and the vast differences between the two presidents, and partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic required legislators and policymakers to alter and improve health care access. Telemedicine and telehealth have greatly expanded, which has helped rural and underserved communities.
To administer more COVID-19 vaccines at a faster pace, the government formed a partnership between the national Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defence, called Operation Warp Speed (OWS). OWS helped study the safety of the vaccine and mitigated vaccine manufacturing challenges (including cost and distribution). Data shows that only 7.7% of the U.S. population is uninsured as of 2023, compared to 13% in 1987.
The U.S. withdrew from the WHO in January 2025, as directed by one of President Trump’s executive orders. President Trump signed another executive order removing recognition of the concept of gender identity and defining sex as a biological classification.
U.S.-World Health Organization Relations
The World Health Organization’s politics are quite confounding and are largely a partisan issue. The U.S. government has financially and technically supported the WHO for most of its history, even being one of the leading contributors to the agency. However, in April 2020, President Trump announced that the federal government would suspend funding to the World Health Organization in response to the WHO’s response and handling of COVID-19. Trump claimed that the WHO mishandled the pandemic, and in May 2020, he stated that the U.S. would terminate its relationship with the WHO and contribute funds elsewhere.
The suspension of funds and termination of relations were overturned by former President Joe Biden in 2021. However, an executive order signed by President Trump in 2025 stated that the U.S. would no longer participate in pandemic agreement negotiations, and another executive order states that the U.S. would withdraw from the WHO, effective January 2025.
Polling showed that nearly one-quarter of Americans believe that the WHO has done a poor job of dealing with COVID-19. 62% of Democrats believe that the WHO had done an excellent or good job of handling the pandemic, while only 28% of Republicans believe the same. Additionally, 80% of Democrats trust information about COVID-19 from the WHO, whereas only 36% of Republicans do.
Most international countries view the WHO as beneficial concerning the pandemic, with some countries having more positive views than others. Denmark (74%) and Sweden (73%) are among the top supporters of the WHO, saying that they have done a good job dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak; however, South Korea (19%) and Japan (24%) were the greatest opponents of the WHO.
Health Policy Challenges
Cost, access, and quality are three of the largest and most traditional challenges when it comes to health policies. In countries without universal healthcare, for example, people pay for the services they require, which vary based on their coverage. If they lack insurance because they can’t afford it, they pay significantly more than those who can afford insurance. Even then, paying for health services can cost quite a bit, even with insurance.
Systematic barriers greatly affect healthcare accessibility. Medical providers may be less available or plentiful in one location than in another. Larger and more affluent cities or neighborhoods, for example, may have increased access to better healthcare than those in smaller and less affluent cities. Larger cities have a higher number of doctors compared to smaller cities, which affects availability. The quality of care could also be affected in this sense – smaller cities may have worse quality of doctors or care, as fewer doctors apply for clinics in smaller cities. Furthermore, many Americans, especially those who have been marginalized, have less trust and confidence in the healthcare system, which may lead to delaying or avoiding necessary care.
Public Health Policy Strategies
There are many public health policy strategies that the government can enact and practice to benefit the public’s well-being. Most of these strategies revolve around increasing the public’s awareness and knowledge of different products. These practices allow the public to understand the dangers and consequences of their actions, or lack thereof. They’re meant to promote good health and to improve the well-being of the general population.
Examples of public health policies include vaccination mandates for schools to prevent the spread of preventable diseases, restrictions and warnings concerning smoking and tobacco use, the presence of nutrition facts from the FDA, etc. Another public health policy is the Affordable Care Act, which seeks to make healthcare more affordable, expand Medicaid, and improve the quality of healthcare. Additionally, the WHO is a major organization that advocates for and develops several public health policies.
The Future of U.S. Healthcare
Within the past few months, the Trump Administration has cut funding and staff several federal public health programs, including HHS, CDC, FDA, NIH, and more. Newly appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is skeptical about vaccines and strongly disagrees with vaccine mandates. He claims that no vaccine is entirely safe and contends that public health programs need to be more transparent with their vaccines. Kennedy has assured the public, however, that those who want vaccines are still able to do so.
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