Politico: Trump announces, then reverses, freeze on funding for World Health Organization
The president also blasted the U.N. agency’s early recommendations for countering the coronavirus.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced plans to put a hold on U.S. funding for the World Health Organization, accusing the United Nations specialized agency of being “very China centric” and criticizing its early guidance aimed at countering the international spread of the coronavirus.
“We‘re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We're going to put a very powerful hold on it and we‘re going to see,“ Trump said at the outset of a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House.
Minutes later, though, the president walked back the declaration, telling reporters that he was “looking into it” and conceding that a global pandemic was “maybe not” the best time to freeze funding for the international organization.
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Trump Says He'll 'Put a Hold' on World Health Organization Funding Before Backtracking (Time)
"They Missed The Call" - Trump Plans To Withhold Money From WHO Over 'Botched' Crisis Response (Zero Hedge)
WNU Editor: The World Health Organization has many mandates pertaining to public health .... raising the alarm when there is a global pandemic is one of them. To say that they have completely failed in protecting global public health is an understatement. I still find it unbelievable that it was only three and a half weeks ago on March 11 that WHO decided to finally declare a global pandemic. President Trump's reversal on freezing funding to WHO was the right thing to do. Even though the organization has failed on a catastrophic level, it is the only organization that can confront this pandemic on an international level. Killing it right now would not be helpful to anyone. But when this pandemic is over, all the people who lead and administer that organization must go. And if they do not, freeze their funds and divert it to something else.
Update: The WHO still has its defenders in the West, and that it is President Trump's fault for this pandemic .... Trump threatens to hold WHO funding, then backtracks, amid search for scapegoat (The Guardian).
Update #2: I put this post up over two months ago, and my blood still boils when I remember it .... WHO Director General Praises China's Response To The Wuhan Coronavirus. Blasts The World's Travel And Trade Restrictions On China Ban And Not Sharing Information (February 4, 2020). This was my red flag that was something terribly wrong with this UN organization.
Update #3: For those who claim that the U.S. government did not respond fast enough, here is a post I put up on January 25 listing U.S. government fears that the situation was going out of control in China, and 5 days before WHO declared the Wuhan Coronavirus (that is what it was called before Covid-19) a public health emergency on 30 January .... U.S. Diplomats And Citizens To Be Evacuated From Wuhan, China. Cities Across The U.S. On High Alert For The Virus (January 25, 2020).
