Trump Halts Funding to WHO

Throughout January, as Trump repeatedly played down the seriousness of the virus and focused on other issues, an array of figures inside his government — from top White House advisers to experts deep in the cabinet departments and intelligence agencies — identified the threat, sounded alarms and made clear the need for aggressive action. But internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response [1] [2].

And in fact his actions even before the virus appeared had already weakened America’s capability of tackling such an epidemic. The Global Health Security and Biodefense unit, which was responsible for pandemic preparedness, had been established in 2015 by the Obama administration. The Trump administration disbanded the team in May 2018. So when the Covid-19 epidemic arrived there was nobody with the knowledge or experience to coordinate the national response, with the result that conflicts between different departments added to the delay in responding effectively to the threat [3].

So instead of taking effective action, Trump issued statements in contradiction to the advice he was receiving from his scientific advisors [4] and instead made false claims [5] [6] and underplayed the risks in the hope that the problem would just go away.

Now that the seriousness of the situation is clear, Trump is following his usual procedure: blame somebody else. He has blamed the Chinese government, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former President Barack Obama [7]. His latest target is the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is managing the global response to the pandemic [8].

On 14 April Trump suspended funding to the WHO [9] while his adminstration reviews virus warnings regarding China [10]. The US is by far the WHO’s biggest donor, theoretically funding it with over $400m a year although it is currently $200m in arrears.

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, responded [10] by repeating his earlier warning that “The World Health Organization, with thousands of its staff, is on the front lines, supporting Member States and their societies, especially the most vulnerable among them, with guidance, training, equipment and concrete life-saving services as they fight the virus.

“It is my belief that the World Health Organization must be supported, as it is absolutely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war against COVID-19.” And he added “[Now is 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. [Now] is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences.” [10]

Unfortunately, unity and working together with the international community are not aims that Donald Trump recognises. His one aim is to be re-elected as President of the United States of America in November. To him, nothing else matters.

Luckily the Democrats have finally established Joe Biden as their candidate to oppose Trump, and he has taken up the fight by attacking Trump’s handling of the pandemic [11]. The election campaign looks set to be an interesting and the result will be crucial for the future of the world.