The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the United States is rejecting reforms agreed upon last year aimed at strengthening the World Health Organization's (WHO) pandemic response measures, citing concerns over national sovereignty, AFP reports.

Trump, who returned to office on January 20, immediately began the process of withdrawing the country from the WHO. The State Department stated that the provisions adopted in 2023 would still be binding on the United States despite its withdrawal.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a longtime vaccine skeptic—said in a joint statement that the changes “invite unwarranted interference in our sovereign right to determine public health policy.”

“We will put Americans first in all our actions and will not tolerate international policies that infringe upon Americans’ freedom of speech, privacy, or individual liberties,” they said.

Rubio and Kennedy formally withdrew the United States from several amendments to the International Health Regulations—legal instruments that define global cooperation in fighting diseases—that were adopted at the World Health Assembly in Geneva in 2023.

“We regret the U.S. decision to reject the amendments,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.

He emphasized that the reforms “clearly reflect the sovereignty of member states” and noted that the WHO “cannot authorize quarantines or similar measures.”