WASHINGTON D.C, USA– President Trump announced during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House that the US is “terminating” its partnership with the World Health Organization, withdrawing funding to the organization.
“Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving, urgent global public health needs”
President trump
According to CNN, President Trump has been threatening to pull US funding if the organization does not “commit to major substantive improvement in the next 30 days.” Though the WHO is the world’s leading global health organization, it has been heavily criticized for its response and management of the pandemic which has claimed more than 319,000 lives worldwide and has largely shut down the global economy amid a search for a vaccine.
Last April 15, Trump decided to temporarily halt the US funding to the WHO due to the organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of coronavirus. The US funds $400 million to $500 million to the WHO each year, Trump said, noting that China “contributes roughly $40 million.”
In a letter by President Trump to the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, he scrutinized WHO’s response to the pandemic and said that “the only way forward for the agency is to demonstrate independence from China.”
“It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world. The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China,”
PResident trump