95bFM On New Zealand’s membership in the World Health Organisation
2 February, 2026
Interview by Castor Chacko, adapted by Sara McKoy
As Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters calls into question New Zealand’s role in the WHO, University of Otago Professor Nick Wilson reiterates the importance of the organisation.
This month, the United States under the Trump administration has officially left the World Health Organisation on account of its “profound failures” in handling Covid-19, in addition to its “lack of accountability, transparency, and independence”.
Following their departure, New Zealand’s own Foreign Affairs Minister has levied his own criticisms onto the organisation.
In a social media post, Peters described WHO as a “bunch of unelected globalist bureaucrats” who “are not accountable or responsible with worldwide taxpayers money”, before suggesting that New Zealand could also withdraw its membership.
University of Otago Professor of Public Health Nick Wilson, who has worked previously for the WHO, told 95bFM’s, The Wire, that the organisation is “an amazingly good value-for-money”.
“One standout example of what it's achieved is that, by organising countries around the world with vaccine programmes, it actually helped eradicate smallpox from the entire planet.”
Wilson emphasises that the vaccination programmes coordinated by WHO are responsible for saving millions of lives per year.
He says the credibility earned by the organisation allows a level of access that is critical for delivering medical information and resources.
“If a new pandemic arises, the mechanisms that WHO has will allow us to rapidly understand that new strain of virus, for example, and be able to develop diagnostic tests and to start working on vaccine development…
“[They are] an organisation that can achieve certain goals that no separate country or group of countries could achieve because of that international respectability.”
Wilson says it is “very disappointing” that the United States has taken such a “short-sighted perspective” in their decision to depart from the organisation, especially as it accompanies the loss of US funding contribution of about 18% of WHO’s total expenditure.
While he is hopeful that other countries will step up to alleviate the financial shortfall, he says a US return to the organisation would be extremely valuable in preparation for future health crises.
“So if there's a future pandemic in the next decade or so, it would be amazingly good if the US was working constructively with other countries to address that pandemic.
“Because unfortanately, future pandemics could even be much more severe than COVID-19”
On New Zealand’s membership in the World Health Organisation, Wilson says the benefits far outweigh the annual $1.5 million ‘cost’ that our country contributes.
“WHO produces a lot of guidelines in terms of information that can help us control, for example, the level of nitrates in drinking water, which is a topical New Zealand issue with (5:23) runoff from farms into drinking water supplies.
“It [also] helped lead the world to control the tobacco industry, and that's still a problem for New Zealand with 5000 deaths a year from smoking.”
Despite Winston Peters’ statement, Wilson says continued membership in the World Health Organisation is indispensable as a means to support both domestic and international health interests.
“Politicians focus on such tiny numbers and levels of expenditure when there's so many other big things they should be considering…
“In terms of preventing the next pandemic, organisations like WHO are absolutely critical”
