US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would put ahold on America’s funding to the World Health Organization, accusing it ofbecoming China-centric during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
We’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We’regoing to put a very powerful hold on it and we’re going to see. It’s a greatthing if it works. But when they call every shot wrong, that’s no good, Trumptold reporters at his daily White House news conference.
Geneva-headquartered World Health Organization, receivesvast amounts of money from the United States.
We pay for a majority or the biggest portion of their money.They actually criticized and disagreed with my travel ban at the time I did it.They were wrong. They’ve been wrong about a lot of things. They had a lot ofinformation early and they didn’t want to — they’re very — they seem to bevery China centric, Trump charged during his news conference.
Trump said his administration is going to look into the USfunding to the WHO.
We give a majority of the money that they get, and it’s muchmore than the USD58 million. USD58 million is a small portion of what they’vegot over the years. Sometimes they get much more than that. Sometimes it’s forprograms that they’re doing, and-it’s much bigger numbers. If the programs aregood, that’s great as far as we’re concerned, he added.
But we want to look into it, World Health Organization,because they called it wrong. They (WHO) called it wrong. They missed the call.They could’ve called it months earlier. They would have known and they shouldhave known and they probably did know. So, we’ll be looking into that verycarefully, and we’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO, Trump said.
Meanwhile, Senator Jim Risch, chairman of Senate ForeignRelations Committee, called for an independent investigation into the WHOhandling of the COVID-19 response.
The WHO has failed not only the American people, it hasfailed the world with its flagrant mishandling of the response to COVID-19,said Risch.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ apparent unwillingness tohold the Chinese Communist Party to even the minimum standard of global healthand transparency hindered the world’s ability to blunt the spread of thispandemic. It is completely unacceptable that the world’s global healthorganization has become a political puppet of the Chinese government, healleged.
An independent investigation into the WHO’s handling of theCOVID-19 response is imperative,” he asserted.
The United States is the largest contributor to the WHO.
Our valuable tax payer dollars should go towards investmentsto prevent the spread of disease, not to aid and abet cover-ups that cost livesand isolate portions of the world’s population on political grounds, as hasbeen the case with Taiwan, Senator Risch said.
A bipartisan group of nearly two dozen lawmakers on Tuesdayannounced Tuesday to introduce a resolution to defund the WHO until itsDirector General Tedros Ghebreyesus resigns and an international commissioninvestigates the organisation’s role in covering up the Chinese CommunistParty’s failed COVID-19 response.
The WHO helped the Chinese Communist Party hide the threatof COVID-19 from the world and now more than 10,000 Americans are dead, anumber that is expected to rise dramatically in the coming weeks, CongressmanGuy Reschenthaler alleged.
The United States is the largest contributor to WHO. It isnot right that Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars are being used to propagateChina’s lies and hide information that could have saved lives. This bill willhold the WHO accountable for their negligence and deceit, he asserted.
The United States’ intelligence community has reported thatthe Chinese government hid the threat of COVID-19 and, as a result, made itdifficult for the rest of the world to respond early, appropriately andaggressively, said Congressman Fred Keller.
For reasons beyond understanding, the World HealthOrganization acted as a silent partner in this effort instead of protecting thelives of millions across the world, including hundreds of thousands of Americancitizens. Our hard-earned tax dollars should not go to a global organizationmore concerned with not offending the Chinese government than providingaccurate information and protecting innocent lives, Keller said.