Trump threatens to keep WHO funding freeze in place after WH investigation
Article written by Edmund DeMarche in "Fox News":
President Trump
released a blistering letter late Monday to the head of the World
Health Organization, stating that his administration conducted an
investigation that confirmed the health body’s multiple failures in the
early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, and warned that his current
funding freeze will become permanent if the organization does not
make “substantive” improvements within 30 days.
The White House has insisted that Beijing downplayed the virus' threat in December, which led to the subsequent outbreak. China has denied the charge.
Trump announced in April that the U.S. would halt funding to the organization. He said at the time that his administration would undertake a 60-to-90 day investigation into why the "China-centric" WHO had caused "so much death" by "severely mismanaging and covering up" the coronavirus' spread, including by making the "disastrous" decision to oppose travel restrictions on China.
The U.S. was the WHO's largest single donor. Trump said the United States contributes roughly $400 to $500 million per year to WHO, while China offers only about $40 million.
This is the letter sent to Dr. Tedros of the World Health Organization. It is self-explanatory! pic.twitter.com/pF2kzPUpDv— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2020
The
letter offers a bullet-point list of shortcomings at the agency that
Trump claimed could have been prevented under the right leadership.
The
WHO “consistently ignored credible reports of the virus” in December
2019. By the end of that month, it was clear at the organization that
the virus was a “major health concern.”
Taiwanese authorities told health officials at the organization about human-to-human transmission, but that revelation was not shared with the international community.
Taiwanese authorities told health officials at the organization about human-to-human transmission, but that revelation was not shared with the international community.
Trump’s
letter stated that International Health Regulations require countries
to report the “risk of a health emergency within 24 hours.”
The
letter laid the blame squarely on China and the WHO for weeks of
non-action. The health body even accused U.S. travel restrictions to the
country in late February of causing “more harm than good.”
“By
the time you finally declared the virus a pandemic on March 11, 2020,
it had killed more than 4,000 people and infected more than 100,000
people in at least 114 countries,” the letter read.
Trump's letter comes as Democrats criticize the White House for not taking the virus seriously from the outset.
Dr. Rick Bright,
a whistleblower who ran the Biomedical Advanced Research and
Development Authority, blamed the Trump administration for its own slow
response to the pandemic and said the administration was instead worried
about politics instead of science.
Trump has dismissed Bright's charges and has indicated that he is a disgruntled employee with a political bent.
The
WHO bowed to calls Monday from most of its member states to launch an
independent probe into how it managed the international response to the
coronavirus pandemic that has killed over 300,000 people and leveled the
global economy.
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