Trump Calls Out WHO's Ties to China, Vows To Give US Funding 'A Good Look'
President Donald Trump criticized the World Health Organization’s coronavirus response and said he will give its funding “a good look” in a Tuesday tweet.
“The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look,” Trump tweeted.
The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020
“Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?”
The United States is the largest contributor to the WHO, and is set to fund the organization to the tune of $116 million combined in 2020 and 2021, according to a financial document.
The U.S. also contributes between $100 million and $400 million per year to the organization for specific projects, Fox News reported.
The WHO has been recently questioned for its response to the coronavirus pandemic, especially for information it tweeted about “preliminary” findings from Chinese authorities that downplayed the seriousness of the virus.
The tweet said that Chinese authorities found “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission” of COVID-19.
Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China??. pic.twitter.com/Fnl5P877VG
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 14, 2020
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley tweeted last week: “The WHO owes an explanation to the world of why they took China’s word for it. So much suffering has been caused by the mishandling of information and lack of accountability by the Chinese.”
This was posted by the WHO on January 14th. The WHO owes an explanation to the world of why they took China’s word for it. So much suffering has been caused by the mishandling of information and lack of accountability by the Chinese. https://t.co/SooEnEPsjJ
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) April 3, 2020
Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Tom Cotton of Arkansas have introduced a resolution calling on WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to retract “highly misleading statements of support for the response of the Government of the People’s Republic of China to COVID-19.”
In February, Ghebreyesus said there wasn’t a need to take measures that “unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade” to try to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, Reuters reported.
“We call on all countries to implement decisions that are evidence-based and consistent,” he said.
Ghebreyesus also praised China in a tweet on March 20 after the country reported no new domestic COVID-19 cases.
“This is an amazing achievement, which gives us all reassurance that the #coronavirus can be beaten,” he tweeted.
For the first time, #China has reported no domestic #COVID19 cases yesterday. This is an amazing achievement, which gives us all reassurance that the #coronavirus can be beaten. https://t.co/py3Ka2cbLK
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 20, 2020
Sen. Rick Scott, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, called for Congress to investigate the WHO and consider if American taxpayer money should be going to the organization.
“When it comes to Coronavirus, the WHO failed,” the Florida Republican told said in a statement last week.
“They need to be held accountable for their role in promoting misinformation and helping Communist China cover up a global pandemic,” he added.
“We know Communist China is lying about how many cases and deaths they have, what they knew and when they knew it — and the WHO never bothered to investigate further.”
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