Trump Will Pull WHO Funding if it ‘Does Not Commit to Major Substantive Improvements’ in 30 Days

MARY CHASTAIN MAY 19, 2020 1:00 PM

President Donald Trump told WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that if the organization does not make necessary changes, especially when it comes to China, he will permanently withdraw funding and “reconsider” America’s membership.

Trump suspended funding to WHO in late April, pending an investigation of how the organization responded to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

In the letter, Trump listed the findings of the investigation, which included WHO’s “alarming lack of independence from” China.

The investigation “confirmed many of the serious concerns” Trump noted when he announced the suspension.

Here are a few of the points Trump included in his four-page letter:

• Trump reminded WHO that it praised Communist China for its “transparency” in late January, even though the government failed to address the outbreak right away. WHO also ignored the fact that China “silenced or punished several doctors for speaking out about the virus and restricted Chinese institutions from publishing information about it.”
• Transparency showed up again when Trump noted that WHO ignored China destroying virus samples, which could have helped the world.
• WHO ignored reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in “December 2019 or even earlier.” It did not “independently investigate credible reports that conflicted directly with the Chinese government’s official accounts.” WHO even ignored reports from sources in Wuhan.
• By the end of December, the WHO office in Beijing knew about a “major public health” crisis in Wuhan. Trump pointed out that Dr. Zhang Jixian told health authorities about 180 people were suffering from “a new coronavirus.”
• When Taiwan sent information about “human-to-human transmission” of the virus WHO elected not to tell other countries. Trump said WHO “probably” did this “for political reasons,” which makes sense considering the tensions between Taiwan and China.
• Trump slammed WHO for remaining silent when China retaliated against Dr. Zhang Yongzhen, who posted his findings after he “sequenced the genome of the virus.” China closed his lab after he revealed his data. WHO did nothing, even though the doctor stressed he told the Chinese authorities.
• Then there’s the fact that WHO accepted Chinese propaganda that humans could not transfer the virus to one another and gave in to the pressure not to declare the outbreak a health emergency.
• WHO praised China when the government implemented travel restrictions. Yet, when Trump issued his own, WHO argued against him.
• WHO only declared a health emergency after 4,000 people died and 100,000 people were infected in 114 countries.

Trump praised WHO’s past actions, which showed him that the organization could do better:

In 2003, in response to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China, Director-General Harlem Brundtland boldly declared the World Health Organization’s first emergency travel advisory in 55 years, recommending against travel to and from the disease epicenter in southern China. She also did not hesitate to criticize China for endangering global health by attempting to cover up the outbreak through its usual playbook of arresting whistleblowers and censoring media. Many lives could have been saved had you followed Dr. Brundtland’s example.

Trump concluded that in order for WHO to move forward it must “actually demonstrate independence from China.”

WHO received $893 million from America after a two-year period that ended in 2019. China only gave WHO $86 million during that time.

China has since given $50 million after the pandemic. The regime also pledged $2 billion to fight the pandemic.

Some have considered this “as an effort to fill a global leadership void brought on by Mr. Trump’s moves against WHO.”

To me, though, anyone with a brain cell can tell China is only doing it to save its own ass and try to save face. The left and those suffering from TDS will buy it.

Trump’s administration said President Xi Jinping made the pledge to distract from his earlier “failings to deal with the outbreak early on.”

[Featured image via YouTube]

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