Trump Pulls U.S. Funding From WHO
President Trump this week announced the US would suspend funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) while officials investigate the “China-centric” agency and why it caused “so much death” by “severely mismanaging and covering up” the true nature of COVID-19.
As I wrote in a previous article, the WHO’s response to the coronavirus has been less than stellar. Among other problems, the organization has strong ties to China that continually prevent it from responding to crises in an objective fashion. This time around, the agency has been accused of helping China suppress information at the beginning of the outbreak.
“We need the WHO to do its job, to perform its primary function, which is to make sure that the world has accurate, timely, effective, real information about what’s going on in the global health space, and they didn’t get that done here,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Not only did the WHO actively ignore evidence suggesting COVID-19 could spread from one human to another, they praised China’s initial response to the virus even after Beijing detained a doctor who tried to spread a warning.
“Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China’s lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death,” said Trump.
As expected, Democrats condemned Trump’s decision and accused him of using the WHO as a scapegoat for his own failures.
“While the WHO may have made mistakes in its response to this crisis, it was certainly not alone, and it defies logic to withhold support from the WHO at this pivotal moment – at the height of a global pandemic – when promoting the health of nations around the world is essential to protecting our own population and rebuilding our own economy,” wrote Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Steven Lynch (D-MA) in a letter.
“Halting funding for the WHO during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds,” added Bill Gates, whose foundation contributes more money to the WHO than do most of its member nations. “Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. The world needs @WHO now more than ever.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said there would be time for an investigation after COVID-19 is defeated.
“It is not the time to reduce the resources for the operation of the WHO or any humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus,” said Guterres. “Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe, and how all those involved reacted to the crisis. The lessons learned will be essential to effectively address similar changes, as they may arise in the future.”
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed “sympathy” with Trump’s decision, but said he would not follow suit. “We work closely with them so we’re not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater here,” he said.
The United States is the WHO’s largest donor, contributing between $400 and $500 million each year. By comparison, China spends about $40 million.
Author’s Note: This is vintage Trump, making a bold and controversial move to prepare for negotiations. Trump has established a position of complete withdrawal and can now “settle” for major changes to the WHO’s China-centric bias so the agency can move towards objectivity and be effective in predicting and preventing pandemics, like COVID-19.
Next, Trump needs to pull our funding from the UN and then give those communists 30 days to be out of our country.
Why would anyone want to fund an organization that didn’t have the world’s people interest first but instead it chose to put China first and so Chinese people and visitors to China were allowed to travel to Italy, Spain, US, Japan, Korea and the rest of the world spreading the virus. So if you lost a loved one, you can blame China and the WHO. Bet China brought the head of WHO a very nice mansion in China with a promise of a lifetime free living.
Let Bill Gates put his money where his mouth is…he can fund WHO if he thinks they are doing such a great job. As a matter of fact, he can relocate to China where life is so much better than in the US. Good riddance to bad rubbish!
WHO is funded by sponsors. Sponsors can and will control the beggar. China exerted pressure on WHO. Now the US does not… and does. If your employee betrays you, stop paying. That usually implies and goes along with being fired.
Another bold and correct move by The President of our United States.
President Trump promised he would serve the citizens of the US first and above all others and he continues to keep his promise.
The WHO was derelict jn its duties to protect the world because of their allegiance to China.
Let China fund the WHO as China has been the primary source of so many of the virus’s that have spread worldwide in the past several decades.
Keep our US taxpayer dollars in the US and use them to protect ALL us citizens first!