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Trump threatens permanent freeze on WHO funding without 'major' reforms within 30 days
© Getty Images
President Trump on Monday threatened to permanently halt U.S. funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) if the body does not commit to "major substantive improvements" in the next 30 days.
The president, in a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, levied a series of allegations that the global health entity overlooked or ignored various warning signs about the coronavirus and criticized its stance toward China during the pandemic.
"We do not have time to waste," he wrote. "That is why it is my duty, as President of the United Staes, to inform you that, if the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization."
"I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America's interests," he added.
The Trump administration is already in touch with the WHO about desired reforms, the president wrote, but he did not specify what those reform would be other than to say they would have to be.
The president's letter, which he tweeted late Monday night, raised more than a dozen specific instances where he argued the WHO had either missed warning signs of the coronavirus outbreak or offered praise for China.
Trump criticized the WHO for praising China's domestic travel restrictions but later questioning his administration's international travel restrictions. The president also cited the WHO's assertion in January that the virus could not be spread through human-to-human transmission.
“Throughout this crisis the World Health Organization has been curiously insistent on praising China for its alleged ‘transparency,’” Trump wrote, an ironic criticism given Trump also praised China and its president for their transparency in a Jan. 24 tweet.
The president has turned the WHO into a frequent target for criticism as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the U.S., infecting more than 1.5 million people in the country and killing more than 90,000 as of Monday night.
"It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world," Trump wrote in Monday's letter. "The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China."
The U.S. accounted for roughly 20 percent of the WHO's total budget in the past two years, significantly more than other countries. That has been a particular point of tension for Trump, who has long been skeptical of outsized U.S. contributions to international organizations.
Trump first announced on April 14 that his administration would pause funding for the WHO pending a review of the entity's handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Critics have questioned the timing of the move, given the WHO is one of only a few global bodies working to combat the pandemic.
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Tedros earlier Monday said he would support an independent review of the global response to the coronavirus as the U.S. and other Western governments ratchet up pressure on China to be more transparent in what it knew and when it knew it about the virus.
"I will initiate an independent evaluation at the earliest appropriate moment to review experience gained and lessons learned, and to make recommendations to improve national and global pandemic preparedness and response," Tedros said. "To be truly comprehensive, such an evaluation must encompass the entirety of the response by all actors, in good faith."
China first alerted the WHO to the presence of a cluster of atypical pneumonia in the city of Wuhan on Dec. 31, after WHO picked up reports through its Epidemic Intelligence System. But there is evidence to indicate the virus was circulating in Wuhan as early as mid-November
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Health and Science
WHO chief agrees to independent review of coronavirus response; warns majority of world still susceptible to virus
Published Mon, May 18 20209:02 AM EDTUpdated Mon, May 18 202012:44 PM EDT
Chloe Taylor
@ChloeTaylor141
Key Points
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said his agency will facilitate an independent review of its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
He was speaking at the 194-member-nation World Health Assembly’s virtual conference.
More than 4.7 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed around the world, according to Johns Hopkins University, including more than 315,000 deaths.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a daily press briefing on COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at the WHO heardquaters in Geneva on March 11, 2020.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a daily press briefing on COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at the WHO heardquaters in Geneva on March 11, 2020.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images
The World Health Organization said Monday it will initiate an independent review into its handling of the coronavirus pandemic “at the earliest appropriate moment” and urged countries to continue funding the agency.
Speaking at the World Health Assembly, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on all nations to “do everything it takes to ensure that the 2020 coronavirus pandemic is never repeated.”
“The world doesn’t need another plan, another system, another mechanism, another committee or another organization,” he said. “It needs to strengthen, implement and finance the systems and organizations it has — including WHO.”
More than 4.7 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed around the world, according to Johns Hopkins University, including more than 315,000 deaths.
Tedros added that the world could no longer afford the “short-term amnesia” that had characterized the global response to health crises in the past, calling for a comprehensive framework to be established to facilitate pandemic preparedness around the globe.
“The world does not lack the tools, the science, or the resources to make it safer from pandemics,” he told the conference. “What is has lacked is the sustained commitment to use the tools, the science and the resources it has. That must change, and it must change today.”
Acknowledging that everyone had lessons to learn from the Covid-19 pandemic, Tedros said the WHO was committed to transparency and would therefore facilitate an independent review of its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
“I will initiate an independent evaluation at the earliest appropriate moment to review experience gained and lessons learned, and to make recommendations to improve national and global pandemic preparedness and response,” he said.
World leaders are gathering virtually on Monday for the WHO’s 73rd World Health Assembly.
Earlier at the conference, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $2 billion to support other countries’ response to the pandemic. Xi also expressed support for a comprehensive review into the global response to Covid-19.
An EU-drafted resolution that called for an independent review into the WHO’s performance amid the coronavirus crisis was backed by a majority of the health body’s 194 member states on Monday.
The Trump administration has been particularly critical of the WHO’s response, with President Donald Trump pulling U.S. funding from the organization in April. However, Trump said Saturday he was considering restoring some funding to the WHO.
Majority of population still susceptible to Covid-19
Tedros also urged policymakers on Monday not to lift lockdown restrictions too rapidly.
“Countries that move too fast, without putting in place the public health architecture to detect and suppress transmission, run a real risk of handicapping their own recovery,” he warned.
“Even in the worst-affected regions, the proportion of the population with the tell-tale antibodies is no more than 20%, and in most places, less than 10%. In other words: the majority of the world’s population remains susceptible to this virus.”
Several countries in Asia and Europe continue to lift restrictions, first introduced in an effort to slow the spread of Covid-19.
