President Donald Trump has announced halting America’sfunding of up to USD 500 million annually to the World Health Organizationwhile a review is being done to assess its role in “severely mismanagingand covering up” the spread of the deadly coronavirus when it firstemerged in China.
The novel coronavirus, which originated in the centralChinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province in November, has so far killed at least1,19,000 people globally, including more than 25,000 in the United States,according to Johns Hopkins University.
“Today I am instructing my administration to haltfunding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assessthe World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering upthe spread of the coronavirus. Everybody knows what has gone on there,”Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference on the pandemicon Tuesday.
Trump and his senior officials have previously accused theGeneva-based UN health body of taking side with China in the coronavirusoutbreak that has brought America’s economy, the world’s largest, to astandstill.
Reacting to Trump’s remarks, UN Secretary-General AntonioGuterres said now was “not the time” to be cutting resources for theWHO.
American taxpayers provide between USD 400 million and USD500 million per year to the WHO, in contrast, China contributes roughly USD 40million a year and even less, the president said.
“As the organisation’s leading sponsor, the UnitedStates has a duty to insist on full accountability, one of the most dangerousand costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travelrestrictions from China and other nations, Trump alleged.
“They were very much opposed to what we did,fortunately, I was not convinced and suspended travel from China saving untoldnumbers of lives…thousands and thousands of people would have died, he said.
The world, he asserted, depends on the WHO to work withcountries to ensure that accurate information about international healththreats is shared in a timely manner.
The WHO failed in this basic duty and must be heldaccountable, he emphasised.
The president alleged that WHO failed to investigate crediblereports from sources in Wuhan that conflicted directly with the Chinesegovernment’s official accounts. There was credible information to suspecthuman-to-human transmission in December 2019, which should have spurred the WHOto investigate and investigate immediately, he observed.
Through middle of January it parroted and publicly endorsedthe idea that there was not human-to-human transmission happening despitereports and clear evidence to the contrary, he said.
According to Trump, the delays the WHO experienced indeclaring a public health emergency cost valuable time.
The inability of the WHO to obtain virus samples to thisdate has deprived the scientific community of essential data. New data thatemerges across the world on a daily basis points to the unreliability of theinitial reports and the world received all sorts of false information abouttransmission and mortality, he said.
Trump alleged that the silence of the WHO on thedisappearance of scientific researchers and doctors and new restrictions on thesharing of research into the origins of COVID-19 in the country of origin isdeeply concerning, especially when the US gives by far the largest amount ofmoney to the global health body.
“Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into Chinato objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China’s lackof transparency, the outbreak could have been contained…with very littledeath…, he said.
Instead the WHO willingly took China’s assurances at facevalue…and defended the actions of the Chinese government, even praising Chinafor its so-called transparency….
“The WHO pushed China’s misinformation about the virus,saying it was not communicable, and there was no need for travel bans…. TheWHO’s reliance on China’s disclosures likely caused a 20-fold increase in casesworldwide, and it may be much more than that, Trump said.
He said the WHO has not addressed a single one of theseconcerns nor provided a serious explanation that acknowledges its own mistakes.
Trump said for the WHO, it would have been so easy to betruthful, and so much death has been caused by their mistakes. We will continueto engage with the WHO to see if it can make meaningful reforms. For the timebeing, we will redirect global health and directly work with others, he said.
According to Trump, had other nations like the US suspendedtravel from China, countless more lives would have been saved. Instead look atthe rest of the world, look at parts of Europe other nations and regions whofollowed WHO guidelines, and kept their borders open to China accelerated thepandemic all around the world, he said.
The WHO’s attack on travel restrictions put politicalcorrectness above life-saving measures, he alleged.
Since its establishment in 1948, the American people havegenerously supported the WHO to provide better health outcomes for the worldand, most importantly, to help prevent global health crises, he said.
“With the outbreak of the COVID-19, we have deep concernswhether America’s generosity has been put to the best use possible. The realityis that the WHO failed to adequately obtain, vet and share information in atimely and transparent fashion,” Trump added.