Coronavirus : Trump halts funding for WHO, to review its role ‘covering up’ spread of contagion

US President Donald Trump has suspended funding for the World Health Organisation (WHO) till a review is conducted to assess its role in mismanaging the Chinese coronavirus outbreak.

President @realDonaldTrump is halting funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess WHO's role in mismanaging the Coronavirus outbreak. pic.twitter.com/jTrEf4WWj0

— The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) April 14, 2020

“Today I am instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organisation while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organisation’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus. Everybody knows what is going on there. American taxpayers provide between 400-500 million dollars per year to the WHO and in contrast China contributes roughly 40 million dollars a year or even less. As the organisation’s leading sponsor, the United States has a duty to insist on full accountability. One of the most dangerous and and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations. They were very much opposed to what we did. Fortunately I was not convinced and suspended travel from China saving untold number of lives. Thousands and thousands of people would’ve died,” he said.

Coronavirus and the role of WHO

The United Nations body, World Health Organisation, has been under scanner for its alleged coverup of the spread of coronavirus which originated in China. It has been criticised globally for its alleged collusion with China which led to the coronavirus turn into a pandemic claiming lives of over 1 lakh people and infecting almost 20 million globally as of 15 April, 2020. Earlier, too, Donald Trump had criticised World Health Organisation and accused it of being ‘too focused on China’.

In January, WHO had endorsed the conclusion of Chinese authorities that the Novel Coronavirus does not spread from person to person, and had said that it does not recommend any specific health measures for travellers to and from Wuhan.

WHO also ignored Taiwan which had informed that it has evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus. Taiwan wrote to WHO on December 31 regarding this, but WHO was denying human-to-human transmission till mid-January. It may be noted that Taiwan has been denied membership of WHO due to objections of China, which considers the island nation as its territory.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Experts are of the view that this laxity and callousness is responsible for the catastrophe that has struck the world and that the organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, like China’s Xi Jinping, should be held accountable for recklessly managing this deadly pandemic.

Tedros was accused of covering up epidemics in his home country Ethiopia even while he was the health minister in the government days before he became the director of the WHO. A prominent global health expert, who was also an informal advisor to Tedros’s rival for the WHO top spot, had accused him of covering up three epidemics in Ethiopia.