US to suspend funding of the World Health Organization amidst review
pharmafile | April 15, 2020 | News story | Research and Development | COVID, COVID-19, coronavirus
US President Donald Trump has announced the US will stop funding the World Health Organization due to allegations that they covered up the spread of the pandemic.
Donald Trump focused on the organisation’s initial response to the outbreak in Wuhan saying that: “They’ve been wrong about a lot of things, and they had a lot of information early and they didn’t want to – they seemed to be very China centric. They called it wrong, they called it wrong. They could have called it months earlier. They would have known and they should have known and they probably did know. So we’ll be looking into that very carefully and we’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO.
“We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it and we’re going to see. It’s a great thing if it works but when they call every shot wrong, it’s not good. I’m not saying I’m going to do it but we’re going to look at.”
These comments follow his administration requesting to cut the amount of American funding for the WHO in February of this year, from $122.6 million to $57.9 million.
In response, the Speaker of the House, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi, released a letter that said: “A weak person, a poor leader, takes no responsibility. A weak person blames others. The truth is, from this moment on, Americans must ignore lies and start to listen to scientists and other respected professionals in order to protect ourselves and our loved ones.”
The WHO has not yet responded but the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the international community should stand in “solidarity” against the virus.
The US is currently the biggest single funder of the WHO and provided it with $400 million in 2018-2019, which was just under 15% of its total budget, while China contributed $76 million. In March, the organisation launched an appeal for an additional $675 million to help fight the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and it is reportedly planning a fresh appeal for more funds.
Conor Kavanagh
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