Breaking: Trump Suspends WHO Funding as Covid-19 Deaths Surpass 26,000 Globally – Accuses WHO of Mismanagement

Breaking: Trump Suspends WHO Funding as Covid-19 Deaths Surpass 26,000 Globally
– Accuses WHO of mismanagement

President Trump today ordered a suspension to the United States funding of the World Health Organization, accusing it of ‘mismanaging’ the crisis.

America contributed more than $400m to the WHO last year, making it by far the biggest donor. The organization’s budget for 2018-2019 was around $6bn.

Speaking in the White House rose garden, Trump said: “With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns whether America’s generosity has been put to the best use possible. The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain, vet and share information in a timely and transparent fashion.”

“If we cannot trust them, if this is what we will receive from the WHO, our country will be forced to find other ways to work with other nations to achieve public health goals,” he added

The WHO failed in its “basic duty and must be held accountable”, the president went on.

There are now 2 million confirmed cases worldwide, and the U.S. remains the global epicenter, with 2,300 people reported dead on Tuesday alone.

Harvard’s global health director, a WHO critic, called Trump’s move an ‘extraordinarily bad idea’ that will ‘make Americans less safe.’

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health at Georgetown University, told the MSNBC network: “Without a WHO that’s empowered there will be many, many more deaths, and not just as it marches through sub-Saharan Africa, which is next, but also here in the United States.”