“Donald Trump was condemned for
putting countless lives at risk on Tuesday when he announced the US is freezing
payments to the World Health
Organization (WHO) over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“[He] said
funding would be on hold for 60 to 90 days pending a review of the WHO’s
warnings about the coronavirus and China. He accused the global body of ‘severely
mismanaging and covering up’ the threat, even though it declared a public
health emergency on 30 January – after which he continued to hold rallies, play
golf and compare the coronavirus to the common flu.
“Critics were
stunned at the move to cut money from a critical UN agency during a global
pandemic. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, declared now was ‘not the
time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other
humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus. As I have said
before, now is the time for unity and for the international community to work
together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,’ he
said in a statement.
“Lawrence
Gostin, a professor of global health at Georgetown University, told the MSNBC
network: ‘Without a WHO that’s empowered there will be many, many more deaths,
and not just as it marches through sub-Saharan Africa, which is next, but also
here in the United States.’
“America
contributed more than $400m to the WHO last year, making it by far the biggest
donor. The organization’s budget for 2018-2019 was around $6bn.
“Speaking in
the White House rose garden, Trump said: ‘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 reality is that the WHO failed to adequately
obtain, vet and share information in a timely and transparent fashion.’
“He added: ‘If we
cannot trust them, if this is what we will receive from the WHO, our country
will be forced to find other ways to work with other nations to achieve public
health goals.’ The WHO failed in its ‘basic duty and must be held accountable,’
the president went on.
“But critics
said the move fit two distinct Trump patterns. One is his long antipathy
towards multilateral organisations; for example, he also used a Rose Garden
event to announce the US departure from the Paris climate accords. The other is
an attempt to blame others for his own inaction in combatting the coronavirus;
on Monday, he accused the media of downplaying
the dangers.
“Trump’s main
criticism of the WHO was its ‘China-centric’ failure to investigate credible
reports from sources in Wuhan about the outbreak of the virus. ‘Through the
middle of January, it parroted and publicly endorsed the idea that there was
not human to human transmission happening, despite reports and clear evidence
to the contrary,’ he told reporters. The delays the WHO experienced in
declaring a public health emergency cost valuable time – tremendous amounts of
time.’
“But this
critique is at odds with the actual timeline. It emerged last week that in technical
guidance notes, the WHO warned the US and other countries about the risk of
human-to-human transmission as early as 10 January.
“On Tuesday
Jeremy Konyndyk, the former head of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance
at USAid, noted that although on 14 January the WHO tweeted that ‘preliminary
investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear
evidence of human-to-human transmission,’ by 23 January it had published an
official report warning of human-to-human transmission and transmissibility
higher than seasonal flu.
“Konyndyk,
now a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, wrote on Twitter: ‘So to pin
the blame on WHO for this, you have to believe that somehow those 9 days
between 14 and 23 January were critical to the lack of US preparedness. It’s lunacy. The administration
spent the whole month of February doing nothing to meaningfully prepare the
homeland.
“On Tuesday,
Trump complained that the WHO ‘defended the actions of the Chinese government,
even praising its so-called transparency.” Yet on 24 January, Trump tweeted: ‘China
has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States
greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well.
In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!’
“And on 7
February, by which time the WHO had declared a public health emergency, Trump
was asked if China was engaged in a cover up. ‘No, China’s working very hard
... and I think they’re doing a very professional job. They’re in touch with
World Health.’
“And even by
27 February, despite multiple warnings from the intelligence agencies and his
own advisers, he was still minimizing the virus, stating: ‘It’s going to
disappear. One day – it’s like a miracle – it will disappear.’ By the end of
the month, the US had only conducted around 4,000 tests for coronavirus while
other countries tested tens of thousands of people.
“Leslie Dach,
the chair of the pressure group Protect Our Care, said of the WHO defunding: ‘This is
nothing more than a transparent attempt by President Trump to distract from his
history downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis and his
administration’s failure to prepare our nation.
“Dach,
who served as the global Ebola coordinator for the health department, added: ‘To be
sure, the World Health Organization is not without fault but it is beyond
irresponsible to cut its funding at the height of a global pandemic. This move
will undoubtedly make Americans less safe.’
“At Tuesday’s
briefing, Trump backed away from his Monday claim of ‘total’ authority over
states, a remark that prompted Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor, to note
that Trump is not a king. ‘I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly,’
the president said. ‘And I will then be authorizing each individual governor of
each individual state to implement a reopening, very powerful reopening plan of
their estate in a time in a manner which is most appropriate.’
“He added: ‘The governors will be
very, very respectful of the presidency... You can talk about constitution. You
can talk about federalism. You can talk about whatever you want. But the best
way, I am talking now from a managerial standpoint, to let individual governors
run individual states and come to us if they have difficulty and we will help
them.’”
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