Rubio says WHO was 'a little late' on identifying Ebola outbreak

Key points

• U.S.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday (May 19, 2026) that the World Health Organization, the UN body which President Donald Trump stopped funding, was late in identifying a deadly outbreak of Ebola.
• Asked by reporters how the United States would respond to the virus outbreak, Mr.
• Rubio said, “The lead is obviously going to be CDC (the Centers for Disease Control) and the World Health Organization, which was a little late to identify this thing unfortunately.” Trump, in one of his first acts on returning to office last year, set in motion a U.S.
• withdrawal from the WHO, which he attacked bitterly over its response to COVID-19. The global pandemic heavily affected his first administration in the months before he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.