US Republican lawmaker disagrees with Trump's decision to withdraw from WHO

WASHINGTON - US Republican Senator Lamar Alexander said Tuesday he disagrees with President Donald Trump's decision to officially quit the World Health Organization (WHO).

"I disagree with the president's decision," said Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, adding that withdrawing US membership would undermine the development of a COVID-19 vaccine and hamper US cooperation with other countries to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The United States suffered the most from the pandemic, with 3,054,695 COVID-19 cases and 132,299 fatalities up to date, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

"If the administration has specific recommendations for reform of the WHO, it should submit those recommendations to Congress, and we can work together to make those happen," he said in a statement.

The United States will leave the WHO on July 6, 2021, and currently owes the organization more than 200 million US dollars in assessed contributions, according to the WHO website.