President Donald Trump’s decision to cut off U.S. payments to the World Health Organization during the coronavirus pandemic has attracted widespread criticism.
Trump accused the organization of failing to do enough to stop the virus from spreading when it first surfaced in China.
“The WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held accountable,” Trump said at an April 14 briefing. He said the U.S. would be reviewing the WHO’s actions to stop the virus before making any decision on resuming aid.
There was no immediate comment from the Geneva-based organization on Trump’s announcement. But when asked about possible U.S. funding cuts during a regular U.N. briefing earlier on April 14, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris responded, “Regardless of any issues, our work will go on.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres responded to Trump’s announcement by saying now is not the time to end support for the World Health Organization, calling the WHO “absolutely critical” to the global effort to combat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Guterres said that it is possible that different entities read the facts differently but that the appropriate time for a review is “once we have finally turned the page on this pandemic.”
“But now is not that time,” he said, adding that it also is not the time to reduce resources for operations at the WHO or any other humanitarian group that is working to combat the virus.
The United States contributed nearly $900 million to the WHO’s budget for 2018-19, according to information on the agency’s website.
That represents one-fifth of its total $4.4 billion budget for those years. The U.S. gave nearly three-fourths of the funds in “specified voluntary contributions” and the rest in “assessed” funding as part of Washington’s commitment to U.N. institutions.
A more detailed WHO budget document provided by the U.S. mission in Geneva showed that in 2019, the United States provided $452 million, including nearly $119 million in assessed funding. In its most recent budget proposal from February, the Trump administration called for slashing the U.S. assessed funding contribution to the WHO to $57.9 million.
Meanwhile Bill Gates has said Trump’s decision to stop US funding of the WHO “during a world health crisis” is as “dangerous as it sounds”.
The Microsoft founder tweeted:”Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. The world needs @WHO now more than ever.”
Democratic lawmakers strongly denounced President Trump’s decision to suspend the funding.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that the move “makes as much sense as cutting off ammunition to an ally as the enemy closes in.”
“The White House knows that it grossly mishandled this crisis from the beginning, ignoring multiple warnings and squandering valuable time, dismissing medical science, comparing COVID-19 to the common cold, and saying ‘everything will be fine,'” Leahy, who also serves on the subcommittee overseeing foreign operations, added. “Not wanting to take responsibility as the deaths continue to mount, he blames others.”
Sen. Brian Schatz, an outspoken critic of the president, said in a tweet that the announcement felt like a “distraction.”
Sen. Chris Murphy called it a “grade school caliber attempt to deflect attention from his China fawning and his ongoing negligence since.”
“He wants this to be about other countries so he doesn’t have to explain why South Korea and the USA got hit with their first cases at the same time, but South Korea prevented mass deaths,” Schatz added.
Sen. Tina Smith and Reps. Karen Bass and Jesús García echoed those remarks, with Bass calling the move an “abdication of international responsibility and leadership.”
“International cooperation on public health has never been more critical,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) tweeted. “Freezing funding for the WHO will only make it worse.”
