WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has urged governments to immediately implement "sin taxes" on "unhealthy products" in an attempt to offset the decline in global health aid. The decline comes as a result of Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. funding from the private organization.

"In the past few months, I have spoken to many ministers, and the impact on their programmes of the sudden cuts in official development assistance is severe," Tedros told a June 5 Town Hall on tuberculosis, with mention of malaria, HIV, vaccines, and more.

Two days before Tedros's demand, President Donald Trump's administration formally requested to cancel $9.4 billion in foreign health spending, impacting the WHO's budget. Russ Vought, Trump's Office of Management and Budget head and Project 2025 co-author, made the initial request.

On January 21, President Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the WHO via executive order, citing financial inequities and ineffective handling of global health challenges.

The international body guided the COVID-19 pandemic response, advising independent member states like Canada on measures such as testing, contact tracing, quarantine, and gathering restrictions.

President Trump attempted to leave the WHO in 2020 due to its perceived pro-China bias and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as failing to adequately investigate the Wuhan Institute of Virology as ground zero for the novel pathogen. President Joe Biden reversed this decision in 2021.

The new order seeks to revoke Biden's reversal, meaning the U.S. would exit the WHO within a year, cutting 18% of its $6.8 billion budget.

By contrast, Canada contributed $175.3 million in 2024/25.

Canadians, battling inflation and tax fatigue, face the WHO's call for higher taxes rather than spending reevaluation or waste reduction.

Canada, a top ten WHO funder, has given over $900 million in taxpayer money over the past decade. Its contributions surged to $212 million USD in 2020/21 (nearly triple the norm), then stabilized at roughly $86 million annually.

Canada pledged over $3.5 billion in taxpayer funds to WHO-linked COVID-19 initiatives like ACT-Accelerator and COVAX, overseen by unelected Public Health Agency of Canada staff. This private organization faces criticism for prioritizing corporate interests over global health.

Earlier this year, Tedros declared the new Pandemic Accord a "big win" after its adoption last month at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis, supported by thousands of Canadians, wrote a scathing 2023 letter to then-health minister Mark Holland, opposing the pandemic treaty over concerns about Canadian sovereignty.

Tedros, avoiding accountability for global distrust in the WHO, urged Canada and other countries to raise domestic taxes to sustain continued aid to the WHO.

Trump claims that the US cuts are aimed at "wasteful foreign assistance spending" to "eliminate programs that are antithetical to American interests." U.S. Congress has 45 days to consider the proposal.

The Global Health Council urged people to "push back against efforts to politicize public health," noting that "these proposed cuts are about ideology, not money. And they put lives at risk."

A Trump advisor told the Daily Mail that foreign aid would be cut unless it served America’s strategic goals, targeting radical groups, including those who conspire with terrorists and promoting a "diversity, equity, inclusion" agenda.

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Ezra Levant and Rebel News’ head of production Efrain Monsanto travelled to Geneva, Switzerland to get answers about the World Health Organization's new international health regulations and proposed pandemic treaty — since the public doesn’t seem to be getting the full story from the government or corporate media. If you think that’s valuable journalism — that we have to stay vigilant — then please chip in here to help cover the cost of their economy class airfare, shared Airbnb, taxis and meals while they were on the road. (Thanks!)

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