COVID-19: United States Terminates Relationship With WHO

WASHINGTON DC (United States): President of the United States (POTUS) Donald Trump has announced that America is terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the Coronavirus. He blamed WHO and China for the deaths and destruction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe.

TRUMP: We are terminating our relationship with the @WHO. pic.twitter.com/MmXk30JCND

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) May 29, 2020

The US President said, because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, the United States will be terminating its relationship with WHO forthwith and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving, urgent global public health needs.

He said that the world needs answers from China on the virus.

The president for weeks has expressed frustration with China, blaming the communist country and in part the WHO for the spread of the deadly virus that has left more than 100,000 dead in the US.

“Our actions will be strong, our actions will be meaningful,” Trump said.

Trump’s criticism of the WHO’s handling of the pandemic began last month when he threatened to permanently withdraw US funding, suggesting the UN health agency had “failed in its basic duty” in its response.

“It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organisation in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world,” he wrote in a letter to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on 18 May.

He later labelled the WHO a “puppet of China”.

It’s not immediately clear whether the president can fully withdraw U.S. funding for the WHO without an act of Congress, which typically controls all federal government spending. Democratic lawmakers have argued that doing so would be illegal, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened last month that such a move would be “swiftly challenged.”

The United States has provided roughly 15% of the WHO’s total funding over its current two-year budget period. A WHO spokesperson declined to comment Friday.

In his speech from the Rose Garden of the White House yesterday, Trump also announced that the US will end special treatment of Hong Kong in response to Chinese imposition of new controls. The US will revise its travel advisory to warn of surveillance in Hong Kong, he added.

from League of India