We reported on 15 April how US President Donald Trump was following his usual procedure when something goes wrong: blame somebody else. Following his own failure to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, he blamed everyone he could think of for the rising number of deaths in the United States: the Chinese government, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former President Barack Obama.

On 14 April Trump suspended funding to the WHO. On 29 May, the day after the death toll in the US passed 100 thousand, he gave a speech terminating the United States’ relationship with the World Health Organisation. Trump said:

“The world is now suffering from the malfeasance of the Chinese government. China’s cover-up of the Woohan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has cost more than 100,000 American lives and over a million lives world-wide.

“Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organisation and pressured the World Health Organisation to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities. Countless lives have been taken and profound economic hardship has been inflicted all around the globe. They strongly recommended against me doing the early ban from China but I did it anyway and I was proven to be 100% correct.

“China has total control over the World Health Organisation despite only paying $40 million per year compared to what the United States has been paying which is approximately $450 million per year. We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engaged with them directly but they have refused to act.

“Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organisation and redirecting those funds to other world-wide and deserving urgent public health needs…This pandemic has underscored the crucial importance of building up America’s economic independence, reassuring our critical supply chains and protecting America’s scientific and technological advances.”  [1]

This came on the same day the WHO published figures [2] showing it had only received about half of the $1.7 billion it needs to implement priority public health measures in support of countries to prepare and respond to coronavirus outbreaks, as well as to ensure continuation of essential health services, as outlined in the strategy released on 14 April.

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGgMBHJq8VM

[2] https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/donors-and-partners/funding