President Donald Trump has announced that the U. S. had suspended funding of the World Health Organization, WHO.
He made the announcement on Tuesday, saying the decision was because WHO allegedly covered up the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak in China before it spread around the world.
AFP reports that Trump, at a press conference, said he was instructing his administration to halt funding while “a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”
According to Trump, the WHO prevented transparency over the outbreak and the United States — the UN body’s biggest funder which provided $400 million last year — will now “discuss what we do with all that money that goes to the WHO.”
“With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns whether America’s generosity has been put to the best use possible.”
“The WHO’s attack on travel restrictions put political correctness above life-saving measures,” he said.
“Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China’s lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death,” he said.
“This would have saved thousands of lives and avoided worldwide economic damage. Instead, the WHO willingly took China’s assurances to face value… and defended the actions of the Chinese government,” he said.
