Trump Administration to withhold World Health Organization funding

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U.S President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold US funding from the WHO (World Health Organization). Trump has claimed the organization didn’t react well to some of his regulations against China during the coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic. On Tuesday, the threat came during the White House daily coronavirus press briefing. President said his administration would look at pulling funding from the WHO. He said, “We’re going to put a hold on money spent for the WHO”. He also confirmed the pulling of funding was up for consideration. The reason behind pulling the funding was over claims the WHO missed the call for the novel virus. President said, “They seem to be very China-centric. And we have to look into that so we’ll look into it we pay for a majority of the money that they get”.

Trump said he thought specific programs of the WHO were worthwhile. The organization made mistakes, specifically opposing his decision to put a travel ban on China. He said, “We have to look into that, so we’re going to look into it”. One decision Trump administration was consistently admired by the president was pushing travel bans on China in late January 2020. Trump has often boasted this ban was a bold move on his administration’s part to curb the widespread coronavirus. Point to be noted that the regulation deviated WHO recommendations stating that travel bans to affected areas or denial of entry to passengers coming from affected areas are usually not effective in avoiding the importation.

WHO said it could instead cause a severe social and economic impact on the involved countries. The organization said at the time, “In general, evidence shows restricting the movement of people and goods during public health emergencies is ineffective in most situations and may divert resources from other interventions”. The WHO said travel bans would be rationale at the very start of an outburst to help the countries involved control the spread within their borders. But, these restrictions need to be short in duration, proportionate to the public health risks and be reconsidered regularly as the situation evolves. It is noteworthy that Trump and his administration made the travel ban after the disease had spread across China for weeks.