Irishman Mike Ryan among World Health Organisation staff leaving following US funding cuts
THE HEAD OF the World Health Organization told staff today that the UN agency was reducing its management team by nearly half due to dramatic US funding cuts.
One of the WHO’s senior staff members departing is Irishman Mike Ryan.
In a short email to WHO staff, seen by the AFP news organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the new “composition of the executive management team” at the agency’s Geneva headquarters, with six members – down from 11.
The new team takes over from 16 June, he said.
Two big figures from WHO’s work leading the global battle against Covid-19 will be leaving: emergencies director Mike Ryan of Ireland and Canadian Bruce Aylward, who heads work towards universal health coverage.
“Mike planned to leave over two years ago but stayed on at my request, and I am very thankful for that,” Tedros wrote in a second email to staff.
Ryan’s “steady presence has been instrumental during our toughest times, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic”, he added.
Ryan recently made an impassioned call for the world to intervene to prevent Israel from “breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza”.
“We are starving the children of Gaza,” he said, attributing blame to anyone who stands by while those in the Palestinian territory suffer the ongoing effects of the war.
He called the situation in Gaza “an abomination”.
https://www.thejournal.ie/irishman-mike-ryan-among-world-health-organisation-staff-leaving-following-us-funding-cuts-6705183-May2025/
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I wonder who will be next on the DOGE chopping block? This makes me kind of sick frankly. 
