United States President Donald Trump recently withdrew funding for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the middle of Covid-19 global pandemic on an allegation that the global health body was “very China-centric.”
At a news conference at the White House last Tuesday, Trump said, “I am directing my 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.” He argued further, “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. 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.”
Trump has come under severe criticisms for not being proactive when Covid-19 outbreak was reported in January, 2020. More deaths from Covid-19 have been recorded in the US than in any other country since December 2019 when the infectious virus was detected in Wuhan, China. But Trump, in halting US contributions to WHO, claimed that WHO was not transparent in the information it shared on Covid-19.
From December 31, 2019 to January 20, 2020, the Chinese authorities repeatedly insisted that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of coronavirus, in spite of leaks from several health workers in Wuhan to the contrary. The Director-General of WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was quoted, based on information from the Chinese, of saying on January 23 that China had put in place measures to contain the spread of the virus. Unfortunately, by January 30, 2020, coronavirus had entered 20 jurisdictions outside China. Trump blamed WHO for allegedly misinforming the international community by relying heavily on releases from Chinese authorities instead of independently verifying the claims made by China.
Trump’s anger may be logical, but the measure he has taken will injure, not just the health care in other countries, but also in the United States. As a UN agency, WHO requires cooperation of member-countries to assess the health conditions of any country. To do so independently, scientists would require time to figure out what the new virus was and how it spreads. Therefore, it is misplaced anger for Trump to blame the damage the pandemic has done to the US on lack of transparency or slow pace of action by WHO.
If Trump’s decision is not reversed, it would be on record that it would be the seventh such international agencies from which Trump is pulling America out. Trump had pulled out of the Paris Agreement on climate change; the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement; Iran nuclear deal; UNESCO membership, the Human Rights Council, and even blocked the World Trade Organisation’s dispute resolution process. Even at WHO, Trump has, since 2018, failed to fill a vacant US seat on its executive board.
Trump’s action would mean WHO would be underfunded by about $400 million annually. This would impede the delivery of medical supplies to the most vulnerable countries, mainly Third World nations, at this time of Covid-19 pandemic. But around the US are several Third World countries who would be affected. In a borderless world that we have today, the situation would affect US adversely. Therefore, Trump’s decision could be self-harming.
We call on the US legislators to prevail on Trump to reverse this decision, as it would further lead to a decline of the US leadership in the world, while it could enhance China’s power. In order to mitigate Trump’s decision, it is now crucial for all members of UN to promptly pay their dues to WHO. Many are in default in this payment. We also call on philanthropists to wade in, cover the grounds being vacated by US, and cushion the effects of Trump’s action.
