The World Health Organization has become a tool of the”Chinese propaganda”, the Trump administration has alleged, assertingthat the global health agency has lost all its credibility during the ongoingcoronavirus crisis.
US President Donald Trump recently announced he would put ahold on America’s funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), accusing theUN health body of becoming “China-centric” during the ongoingcoronavirus pandemic.
The United States is the largest contributor to theGeneva-headquartered world body.
“The problem with the WHO is that they’ve lost allcredibility during this crisis,” US National Security Advisor RobertO’Brien said on Tuesday.
“It’s not like the WHO has been a highly-credibleorganization for many years. The United States spends over half a billiondollars on the WHO. China spends about USD 40 million dollars on the WHO, aboutone-tenth of what the US spends, and yet the WHO has become a tool of Chinesepropaganda,” he alleged.
O’Brien said that on January 14, the WHO assured the US thatthere was no human to human transmission of the COVID-19, that well into thepublic health crisis in China, that turned out to be utterly false.
In February, the WHO criticized travel restrictions thatwere being placed on travel from China and other hotspots, not just by the US,but by other countries, he said.
“That turned out to be totally improper advice, and hasbeen rejected by the public health professionals,” he noted.
On March 11, the WHO came out with non-medical advice andsaid that the Communist Party of China’s reaction to the virus has been an”amazing achievement” in containing it. And of now, the virus is inat least 184 countries, he said.
“So if that’s an amazing achievement, I don’t know whatis. So we’ve got a real credibility problem with the WHO,” he said.
The United States is working with friends and allies to seeif it can be reformed, he said.
“But one thing we will do, even though we’ve suspendedfunding, we’re going to make sure that the taxpayer dollars of hard-workingAmericans that they want to see help our friends and partners and folks aroundthe world who need it, we’re going to make sure those dollars get delivereddirectly to countries, directly to the non-governmental organizations, the RedCross, places that are fighting this disease on the front line,” O’Briensaid.
“Unfortunately, the WHO has just lost credibility atthis point, and you know, instead of stopping, when you hit rock bottom, youstop digging. But the WHO today, apparently, is going to keep digging,” hesaid.
The COVID-19 has claimed more than 45,000 lives and infectedover 824,000 people in the US. Globally, the virus has killed 177,445 peopleand infected over 2.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University data.