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United States President Donald Trump has been greatly criticised for halting financing for the World Health Organization (WHO) amidst the global coronavirus pandemic.
Philanthropist Costs Gates, a major funder of the WHO, said it was “as unsafe as it sounds”.
President Trump said on Tuesday that the body had actually “failed in its basic duty” in its reaction to coronavirus.
But the head of the WHO stated the agency’s “particular focus” was to stop the outbreak.
” There is no time at all to waste,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter
UN Secretary General António Guterres said it was “not the time” to cut funds to the WHO, which “is definitely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war versus Covid-19”.
Mr Trump has accused the WHO of making fatal errors and overly trusting China.
” I am directing my administration to stop financing while a review is carried out to assess the World Health Organization’s role in seriously mismanaging and covering the spread of the coronavirus,” Mr Trump informed reporters on Tuesday.
Mr Trump has actually been under fire for his own handling of the pandemic. He has actually looked for to deflect persistent criticism that he acted too slowly to stop the infection’s spread by indicating his decision in late January to place constraints on travel from China.
He has actually implicated the WHO of having “criticised” that decision, an apparent referral to basic suggestions from the agency versus travel constraints.
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The WHO has actually frequently praised China for its handling of the break out.
The United States is the international health body’s biggest single funder and gave it more than $400 m in2019 The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is moneying Covid-19 treatment and vaccine research study, is the second-largest funder.
A decision on whether the US resumes funding will be made after the evaluation, which Mr Trump stated would last 60 to 90 days.
In other reaction:
- A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there were “no plans” to halt funding and said the WHO had “an essential role to play in leading the worldwide health action”. The UK offers most of any country apart from the US
- Germany’s foreign minister Heiko Mass tweeted that reinforcing the “under-funded” WHO was among the best financial investments that could be made at this time
- Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian stated that the decision would “weaken global co-operation” in combating the virus
- The American Medical Association stated it was a “harmful step in the wrong instructions”
- There was no justification for the relocation at a time when the WHO was “needed more than ever”, stated the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell
- Australian PM Scott Morrison stated he sympathised with Mr Trump’s criticisms but that the WHO likewise does “a lot o