United States President, Donald Trump, has announced that his administration has suspended funding for the World Health Organisation for failing in its basic duty to respond to the Coronavirus outbreak.
The US president said funding would be on hold for 60 to 90 days pending a review of the WHO’s warnings about the coronavirus and China. He accused the global body of severely mismanaging and covering up the threat, even though it declared a public health emergency on 30 January, after which he continued to hold rallies, play golf and compare the coronavirus to the common flu.
The US financial contributions to the WHO accounted for just under 15 per cent of its funding in 2019.
Mr. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, declared now was not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus
“As I have said before, now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,” he said in a statement.
Also, Mr. Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health at Georgetown University,in an interview stated that, “Without a WHO that’s empowered there will be many, many more deaths, and not just as it marches through sub-Saharan Africa, which is next, but also here in the United States.”
Speaking in the White House rose garden, Mr. Trump said: “With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns whether America’s generosity has been put to the best use possible. The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain, vet and share information in a timely and transparent fashion.”
“If we cannot trust them, if this is what we will receive from the WHO, our country will be forced to find other ways to work with other nations to achieve public health goals,” he added.