US President Donald Trump has ordered funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) to be stopped after blaming them over the handling of coronavirus.
The US President said that WHO had “failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable” for their handling over the pandemic.
Trump has blamed the organisation for promoting the “disinformation” of the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China.
He also said that the WHO could have contained the virus had they investigated the first reports of the outbreak in Wuhan.
Trump said, “Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China’s lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death.
“This would have saved thousands of lives and avoided worldwide economic damage. Instead, the WHO willingly took China’s assurances to face value… and defended the actions of the Chinese government.”
The US will continue to work with the WHO to pursue meaningful reforms.
The administration contributes $122.6m and will now only pay $57.9m to the WHO.
Trump told a news conference at the White House on Tuesday, “I am directing my administration to halt funding while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”
UN Secretary General António Guterres said the international community should be uniting “in solidarity to stop this virus.”
He said, “It is my belief that the World Health Organization must be supported, as it is absolutely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war against Covid-19.”
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