The World Health Organization (WHO) has asked President Donald Trump of the United States of America to stop playing unnecessary politics with the lives of millions of people across the world with is threat to cut funding to the world health body.
According to WHO, “we regret the decision of the president” amid calls for global unity to defeat the pandemic. Now is the time for us to be united against a common struggle, a common enemy.”
The Director-General of the world health body, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who reacted to President Trump’s threat, said: “when we’re divided, the virus exploits the cracks between us.”
He had earlier this month, criticized the US President of politicizing the virus, warning him to “stop pointing fingers” unless the US wants “more body bags. It’s like playing with fire.”
The Director General said however that WHO is “assessing how its programmes will be affected” by the administration’s decision, adding that the fund suspension could result in millions of dollars in a funding shortfall, based on 2020-2021 budgets, as the organization mounts a global response to coronavirus, requiring international support.
The US President had, yesterday, April 14, announced that the US would suspend financial support for the WHO after he defected blame for the slow response to the crisis in the US following reports that he largely ignored warnings from members of his administration for several weeks.
He accused WHO of “severely mismanaging” the global response and “pushing misinformation” from China’s government. The announcement came a day after he aggressively defended the US response, including his restrictions on travel from China at the end of January, and screened a video to reporters that downplayed the outbreak’s impact, without answering whether the administration deployed any response in the entire month of February.
