Trump’s health cuts and AI cures

Here’s what we’re following in the world of health security this week, including America’s plan to withdraw from the WHO, a worrying survey on health misinformation and high hopes for AI cures.??

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Trump wants U.S. out of WHO (again)

In an executive order signed a few hours after he was inaugurated, President Donald Trump signaled that the U.S. will withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Jan. 22, 2026.?

The executive order cites a few reasons for the withdrawal, including alleging the so-called “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic … and other global health crises,” as well as a “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.” ?

The executive order also accuses the WHO of demanding “unfairly onerous payments” from the U.S., which it states are “far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments,” specifically citing China. These are, for the most part, similar to the accusations Trump’s former administration made in 2020 when it also moved to exit the WHO — which President Biden then reversed the following year.??

It’s true that the U.S. is currently the largest financial supporter of the WHO, contributing more than $1.2 billion between 2022-23. But that total figure is somewhat misleading. As the MIT Technology Review explained last week, “it’s not as though the WHO sends a billion-dollar bill” to the United States. Membership dues are calculated as a percentage of a country’s GDP. For the U.S., that’s $130 million. For China, it’s $87.6 million. “But the vast majority of the U.S.’s contributions to the WHO are made on a voluntary basis.” ?

Leaving the WHO would do more than simply threaten the organization’s funding —?it would also endanger millions of lives, including those in the U.S. America’s “withdrawal from WHO would make the world far less healthy and safe,” Lawrence Gostin , director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Health Law at 美国乔治敦大学 , told The Telegraph. “It would make it more likely that we could see novel diseases spinning out of control, crossing borders and potentially sparking a pandemic.”?

Always one to keep people guessing, Trump later mused at a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday that the U.S. could one day rejoin the WHO. "Maybe we would consider doing it again, I don't know. Maybe we would. They would have to clean it up."

As for China: “China will, as always, support the WHO in fulfilling its responsibilities ... and work towards building a shared community of health for humanity,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said during a news conference last week. “The role of the WHO should only be strengthened, not weakened.”??

Whether or not China will fill the void left if the U.S. withdraws is unclear. Also speaking to The Telegraph, Dr. Clare Wenham , an associate professor in global health policy at the London School of Economics, said “it might be a big opportunity for China — but do they really care about the WHO? Or do they care more about maintaining broader influence bilaterally?” ?

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Comms crackdown

In addition to signaling a departure from the WHO, the new Trump administration has also already impacted domestic health agency operations. In a surprise move last Wednesday, the Trump administration imposed restrictions on the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), cancelling meetings such as grant review panels, freezing hiring and putting an indefinite ban on travel.??

As Science reported, the effects were immediate. “Officials halted midstream a training workshop for junior scientists, called off a workshop on adolescent learning minutes before it was to begin, and canceled meetings of two advisory councils. Panels that were scheduled to review grant proposals also received eleventh-hour word that they wouldn’t be meeting.”??

The Trump administration also imposed restrictions on communications from federal health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA , including public speaking, press releases and social media posts. The president of the American Public Health Association told NPR that he was giving the Department of Health and Human Services — from which the memo for the comms pause originated — “the benefit of the doubt that they’re simply trying to get their hands around the administration.” Though he told NPR that he found the memo surprising and that it would cause confusion.??

The communications pause also impacts the NIH. It means a freeze on meetings of federal advisory committees and study sections, and it also means that agency staff can’t meet with patient groups or release newsletters or other information to recruit patients into trials. Again, the freeze is said to be temporary, but there is no indication how long it will last.?

Misinformation rising

The Canadian Medical Association says its latest survey of Canadians “points to a direct link” between people consuming health misinformation and negative health outcomes?— and that the problem is getting worse. The survey showed that more than a third (35 percent) of respondents said that they’d avoided effective health treatments due to false information — up six percentage points from just last year.??

Overall, the survey results suggest that Canadians are confused about key health information and are also willing to follow advice they find online, even when they know it’s not from the best source. Around 80 percent of respondents said they trust physicians and other health-care professionals to provide or share accurate health information versus around a quarter who trust sources like Instagram, Facebook, X or Reddit.??

Interestingly, more than half (58 percent) of respondents said that they still trusted Canadian news organizations to provide or share accurate health information.??

Still, roughly a third of respondents (31 percent) said they have taken medical advice found online instead of advice received from a medical professional in the past year. However, this might be explained by the fact that more than a third (37 percent) of respondents said they felt they had to use the medical advice they found online because they couldn’t access a doctor or medical professional for help.??

The survey also found that while respondents were generally good at spotting misinformation on other topics, they were less capable when it came to health information. For instance, 41 percent of respondents agreed that “masks do not stop the spread of airborne illness” (they do), and 38 percent believe that “AI will provide better diagnostic and treatment options than an actual health professional.”???

Stargate health

Another of Trump’s early announcements as President was the launch of something called Stargate, a $500-million AI infrastructure development project, alongside OpenAI , Oracle, Softbank and MGX . Part of the money will apparently be directed toward health care.??

During a press conference with Trump to announce the project, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speculated that AI would help cure diseases at an “unprecedented” rate. “We will be amazed at how quickly we’re curing this cancer and that one and heart disease,” Altman said. “And what this will do for the ability … to cure the diseases at a rapid, rapid rate, I think, will be among the most important things this technology does.”??

Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, agreed, suggesting a future with cancer vaccines created in 48 hours.?

STAT News’ health tech correspondent Mario Aguilar noted some general bemusement following the announcement. “It’s relevant to the industry that Trump is aware of and even excited by visions of AI curing disease,” Aguilar wrote. “His plans around health AI are broadly unclear, though it seems evident regulation will be minimal under his watch.”??

Bird flu update

The FDA says it’s concerned about how bird flu entered the pet food supply chain after it reported last week that more than a dozen cats have died or been sickened by contaminated raw pet food. The FDA is recommending that pet food manufacturers and others in the supply chain implement heat treatments on the food — ie. cooking it — to kill the virus. ?

In the U.K., the Chief Veterinary Officer ordered a new Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) to cover the whole of England “following the escalating number of cases of avian influenza and continued heightened risk levels in wild birds.” The move “will require (bird) keepers to conduct enhanced biosecurity to mitigate the risk of further outbreaks.” It covers everyone from pet bird owners to keepers of commercial flocks.??

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said that it has awarded Moderna with $590 million to help accelerate development of an mRNA-based vaccine for bird flu, alongside other flu vaccines.??

The HHS said that it wants to speed up the development of an H5N1 vaccine that is “well matched to strains currently circulating in cows and birds” and also “expands the clinical data supporting the use of mRNA vaccines that may be needed if other influenza strains emerge with pandemic potential.”??

In 2023, Moderna completed a phase I/II clinical trial of an investigational pandemic influenza vaccine (mRNA-1018), which included testing against H5 and H7 avian flu viruses. “Based on the positive preliminary data from the Phase I/II study, Moderna is preparing to advance mRNA-1018 into Phase 3,” the company said in a press release earlier this month.??

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