President Donald Trump terminates US relationship with WHO
SAT, MAY 30 2020-theG&BJournal- The US President, Donald Trump stunned the world Friday when he terminated the country’s relationship with the World Health Organisation (WHO) accusing it of protecting China at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump held a 10 minutes press conference at the Rose Garden and spent it lampooning China and the WHO before announcing ‘’we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs.’’ He said the world needs answers from China on the virus.
His decision though, could face stiff congressional opposition as most US law makers have consistently argued it is illegal and such act may only be possible by congressional approval.
Trumps announcement comes on a day he faced scathing criticism over his ‘’inciting’’ comment on twitter after riots and looting broke in Minnesota over the death of an African American man, George Floyd.
On Friday, José Luis Castro, President and CEO, Vital Strategies, urged the administration ‘’to reconsider this decision.’’
“This global emergency is far from over,’’ he warned,
The U.S. alone has lost 100,000 lives from this pandemic, a burden that is immeasurable to our health and our economy.
‘’Any decision to terminate the U.S. relationship with the WHO will only stall the global collaboration and cooperation needed to control the virus. There will be plenty of time for assigning blame, but now is not that time. We cannot bear the risk of more lives at stake, Luis Castro said”
“As Dr. Tom Frieden of our Resolves to Save Lives initiative stated earlier today, ‘We helped create WHO. We are part of it. It is part of the world, and turning our back on WHO makes us and the world less safe. Now, China and every other country in the world will have a veto at WHO, and the U.S. won’t. This will make the U.S. more vulnerable.
“At this unprecedented time and in the months ahead, we must use every resource available to stop the spread of COVID-19 and the WHO plays a critical and life-saving role in our global response, Luis Castro said’’
Trumps blames the WHO for ignoring what he called ‘’credible reports’’ of the spreading of the coronavirus in Wuhan in early December 2019. He wrote a terse letter about two weeks ago to the WHO through its Director General Dr Adhanom Ghebreyesus threatening to make a ‘’temporary freeze’’ of US funding permanent and reconsider US membership in the organisation.
WHO responded by agreeing to initiate an independent evaluation at the earliest appropriate moment to review experience gained and lessons learnt, and to make recommendations to improve national and global pandemic preparedness and response.
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