Integrity Intercept #18
Health and Human Services
Public Transcript from pre-recorded tape May 20, 2025
Withdrawal from the World Health Organization
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Robert Kennedy, Jr.
May 23, 2025
The World Health Organization’s influence has sparked intense debate, especially among those fighting for control over their own health decisions.
The sensation of an intrusive force knocking on your door—dictating medical choices—naturally provokes a fiery response. Yet, the difficult truth remains: such interventions are explained to be for the greater good of public health.
Yet, to add another difficult pill to swallow, this intervention is for our own good, not just the good of the public.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the newly appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services, is an intriguing figure whose political stance has surprised health enthusiasts. He comes from a long-standing Democrat family and now wields a powerful stick of rebuttal that he was born to carry.
For conservatives, Robert Kennedy may be controversial in areas. Nevertheless, compared to the previous administration’s choices for health leadership, Kennedy Jr.’s appointment presents a stark contrast in vision and execution.
Former Secretary HHS Xavier Becerra’s confirmation was notable not only for his role as the first Latino to hold the position but also for the tight margin in the Senate vote—50 to 49. His background as California’s Attorney General, rather than a medical professional, was a point of discussion during his nomination process.
While some viewed his appointment as a step toward representation and policy advocacy, others questioned whether his experience aligned with the demands of leading the nation’s health policy.
The confirmation vote itself reflected this divide, with Senator Susan Collins of Maine breaking ranks with her Republican colleagues to support his appointment. (1)
However, it was his Assistant, Dr. Rachel Levine, a pediatrician who served as an Admiral in the U.S. Public Health Services Commissioned Corps, that garnered insights more controversial. She shared her opinions on COVID-19, mental health and gender-affirming care and was the first openly transgender official to be confirmed by the Senate. (2)
This Integrity Intercept gives the transcript by the present Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy, Jr, in our withdraw from the World Health Organization, announcing the decision during the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva.
Secretary Kennedy criticized the WHO as “moribund” and “mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international power politics.” (3) He urged other nations to reconsider their involvement and suggested forming new institutions that are lean, efficient, transparent, and accountable.(4)
The withdrawal leaves the WHO with a significant budget shortfall, as the U.S. has historically been its largest financial contributor. Meanwhile, China has pledged $500 million to the WHO, potentially shifting influence within the organization.
Kennedy’s remarks were met with silence from diplomats and ministers, and the W.H.O proceeded with adopting a new pandemic agreement aimed at improving global preparedness for future health crises. The U.S. did not participate in the vote, as it is no longer a member.
Transcript:
To my colleagues in public health, I am Robert Kennedy, Jr. The U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary.
As you know, President Trump has made the decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization.
I would like to take this opportunity to offer some background to that decision and, more importantly, to chart a future path toward global cooperation and health security.
Like many health institutions, the W.H.O. 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 organizations funding historically, other countries such as China have inserted undue influence over its operations, that serve their own interests and not necessarily the interests of the global public.
This all became obvious during the COVID pandemic. The W.H.O. under pressure from China suppressed reports at critical junctures of human-to-human transmission and then worked with China to promote the fiction that COVID originated from bats and pangolins, rather than from a Chinese government sponsored research at a bio lab in Wuhan.
Not only has the W.H.O. 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.
The W.H.O. often acts like it has forgotten its members must remain accountable to their own citizens and not to transnational or corporate interests.
Now I believe for the most part the staff of the W.H.O are conscientious people who sincerely believe in what they are doing. And indeed the W.H.O., since its inception, accomplished important work, including the eradication of Smallpox.
Too often though the W.H.O. increasingly reflects the biases and interests of corporate medicine. Too often it has allowed political agendas, such as pushing harmful gender theology, to hijack its core mission. Too often it has become the tool of politics and turned its back on promoting health security.
Global security on health is still critically important to President Trump and myself, but it isn’t working very well under the W.H.O., as the failures to the COVID era demonstrate. The W.H.O. has not even come to terms with its failures during COVID, let alone or made significant reforms. Instead, it has doubled down with the Pandemic Agreement which will lock in all the dysfunctions of the W.H.O. Pandemic response. Well, we are not going to participate in that.
We need to reboot the whole system, as we are doing in the United States. Here in the United States. We are going to continue to focus on infectious disease and pandemic preparedness. But we are also fundamentally shifting the priorities of our health agencies to focus on chronic disease which are prevalent in the United States. It is the chronic disease epidemic that is sickening our people while bankrupting our healthcare system.
We are now pivoting our healthcare system to be more responsive to this reality. We are going to make healthcare in the United States serve the needs of the public, instead of industry profit taking. We are removing food dyes and other harmful additives in our food supply. We are investigating the causes of autism and other chronic diseases.
We are seeking to reduce consumption of ultra-processed foods, and we are going to support lifestyle changes that will bolster the immune system and transform the health of our people.
A few of these efforts can easily profit and serve established special interests. These changes can only occur through the type of systemic overhaul that President Trump has brought to our country.
We would like to see a similar re-ordering of priorities on the global stage, especially considering the fact that through leadership of the United States and funding from our country over the past 25 years, millions of global citizens have seen a reduction in premature death due to HIV, TB and malaria.
Let us return to the core focus of global health and global health security. Back to reducing infectious disease burden. And the spread of diseases of pandemic potential. I urge the world’s health ministers and the W.H.O. to take our withdrawal from the organization as a wake-up call.
It isn’t that President Trump and I have lost interest in international cooperation, not at all. We just want it to happen in such a way that is fair and efficient and transparent for all member states.
We’ve already been in contact with other like-minded countries, and we encourage others to consider joining us. We want a free international health cooperation, without a straight jacket of political interference by corrupting influence of the pharmaceutical companies or adversarial nations and their NGO proxies.
I would like to take this opportunity to invite my fellow health ministers around the world into a new era of cooperation. We don’t have to suffer the limits of moribund W.H.O.
Let us create new institutions or re-visit existing institutions that are lean, efficient, and transparent and accountable.
Whether it is an emergency outbreak of an infection disease or the prevention of rot of chronic conditions that have been overtaking not just America but the whole world. We are ready to work with you.
Thank you and may God bless you and let us all pray for the health of our children and our grandchildren.
Thank you, Secretary Kennedy, and Thank you President Trump.
2. https://x.com/SecKennedy/status/1924790453682970951
3. https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/us-withdrawal-from-who.html