US President Donald Trump has announced that Washington “is going to end its relationship with the World Health Organization” because it has too close ties to China and has mishandled the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Because they have not made the requested and necessary reforms, today we will end our relationship with the WHO,” said the president.
Trump has pointed out that China has full control over the WHO despite paying just $ 40 million a year, compared to what the United States has been paying, which is about $ 450 million annually.
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Likewise, the American leader has added that he will redirect the funds to other organizations not yet disclosed.
The president’s remarks come the same week as the US coronavirus deaths exceeded 100,000, the highest death toll in the world and is among the top ten countries with death per million inhabitants.
Trump against WHO
On 14 April, Trump announced that the US would suspend its funding to WHO and accused the organization of “bad management” and “covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”
“The reality is that the WHO failed to obtain, examine and share information in a timely and transparent manner,” stressed the US president. Many experts point at Trump’s decision as an strategy to distract attention from the terrible handling of the pandemic by his administration leading to a catastrophic situation unimaginable just weeks ago.
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The president criticized the agency’s response to the outbreak, saying “one of the WHO’s most dangerous and costly decisions” was to “oppose restrictions on travel from China and other nations.”
In response, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus defended his agency’s activity, which, he said, focuses on “working to save lives and curb the Covid-19 pandemic.”
In mid-May, Fox News reported, citing sources in the Trump Administration, that the White House plans to partially restore funding for the WHO.
According to a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the US will agree to fund the organization, but only by providing the same amount that China pays, the newspaper reported.
Featured image: Trump wearing the wrong Covid-19 protection during a tour of a Honeywell manufacturing facility in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., May 5, 2020. © REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Translated and edited by JRE/EF
