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TOPLINE
Donald Trump has threatened to permanently halt U.S. funding of the World Health Organization and reconsider U.S. membership, as he ratcheted up his spat with the public health body and called for its “reform”.
President Donald Trump froze US funding to the WHO in April
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KEY FACTS
Trump froze payments to the WHO in April until a ‘60 to 90-day review’ was carried out into the organization’s response to the pandemic.
At the time, he accused the WHO of “severely mismanaging” the outbreak, being too “China-centric” in its response, and for declaring a pandemic late.
In a letter to the WHO’s director, Dr Tedros Adhanom, published on Tuesday, Trump escalated the situation and wrote: “If the WHO does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the WHO permanent and reconsider our membership.”
Trump also doubled down on hit spat with China over the virus, accusing the country of trying to control the WHO’s response to the virus and suppressing key information about human-to-human transmission. “The only way forward for the WHO is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China,” he wrote.
China in response accused Trump of shifting blame for his own mismanagement on the crisis. Around a third of global infections are clustered in the U.S., while 90,000 people in the States have died.
Just last week, Trump suggested he may undo his decision and restore 10% of U.S. funding to the WHO.
Before the funding freeze, the U.S. was the largest sponsor of the Geneva-headquartered UN organization and contributed around 15% of the WHO’s $4.8 billion budget.
Chief critic
China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said Trump was “slandering and smearing” China’s efforts to beat the virus which was first detected in the city of Wuhan in December last year. China first reported a case of the then-unknown virus to the WHO on December 31.
“The U.S. leadership’s open letter is filled with phrases of suggestions, maybes, and potentialities, and is trying to mislead the public through this specious method,” the spokesman said. He added that the U.S. was breaching its international obligations by halting its contributions to the WHO.
Key background
The U.S. spat with China, first over trade and now over the coronavirus crisis, has engulfed the WHO as the Trump administration seeks to focus on the early response to the virus that has affected the U.S. the hardest. On Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar, blamed the WHO’s “failure to obtain information” about the virus was one of the main reasons for the virus spinning out of control. China has denied wrongdoing or any cover-up, while the WHO has defended its handling of the outbreak’s early stages. Several countries have called for an investigation into the origins of coronavirus and this week, the WHO said an independent review would begin once the pandemic is under control.
Further reading
Trump Hints He May Reverse Course And Restore WHO Funding (Forbes)
President Trump Putting A Hold On Funding To The World Health Organization (Forbes)
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