WASHINGTON: President of the United States (POTUS) Donald J. Trump has said that his administration was cutting ties with the World Health Organisation (WHO) as it ‘mishandled’ the facts regarding coronavirus.
“WHO failed to satisfy the world about COVID-19. It didn’t make the requested and greatly needed reforms and didn’t put the right information [regarding the virus] before the people. They are responsible for spreading the virus. The US is now cutting all relationship with the health agency,” Trump said while speaking at the White House here on Friday.
Earlier: Trump administration decides to restore partial funding to WHO
The Trump administration had earlier decided to restore partial funding to the World Health Organization, few weeks after the People’s Republic of China announced it was going to donate more to the specialized agency of the United Nations on public health.
The US funding to WHO was halted in April following the orders by Trump after it accused the UN health agency of taking side of China in hiding facts of Coronavirus outbreak.
President Trump, referring to handling to COVID-19 Pandemic, accused WHO of failing in its basic duty and instructed his administration to temporarily halt funding its funding.
Trump said WHO had promoted China’s disinformation about the virus and led to wider outbreak. It is pertinent to mention here that US foots 15 percent of the WHO bills that was $400 million in 2019.
White House taking to the Twitter stated: “President Donald Trump is halting funding of the World Health Organisation while a review is conducted to assess WHO’s role in mismanaging the Coronavirus outbreak.”
This act was not welcomed by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who noted that was not the time to reduce resources for WHO operations: “Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences.”
Commenting on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel said: “With each passing day of this worsening crisis, the president is showing us his political playbook: blame the WHO, blame China, blame his political opponents, blame his predecessors do whatever it takes to deflect from the fact that his administration mismanaged this crisis and its now costing thousands of American lives.”
Meanwhile Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that the US was seeking to fundamentally change WHO. US, that with a donation of $400 last year is presently the biggest doner of WHO, is expected to announce end of its support this week. It is pertinent to mention here that Trump had accused WHO of being China-Centric during the mysterious Coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier, WHO, while responding to US President Donald Trump’s accusation of being China-Centric, has stated that the acute phase of a pandemic was not the time to discontinue funding.
WHO was referring to US President’s threat about cutting the funds for WHO. Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, held: “We are still in the acute phase of a pandemic so now is not the time to cut back on funding.”
He also defended WHO recommendations to keep borders open, saying that China had worked very hard to identify and detect early cases and their contacts and ensure they did not travel in order to contain the outbreak.
Dr Bruce Aylward, a senior advisor to DG of WHO, also defended the organization against comments from US President: “It was absolutely critical in the early part of this outbreak to have full access to everything possible, to get on the ground and work with the Chinese to understand this. This is what we did with every other hard hit country like Spain and had nothing to do with China specifically.”
President Trump threatened on Tuesday (7th of April, 2020) that he wanted to put US contributions on hold to the Geneva-based organization, saying the body had given bad advice during the outbreak.
