Word War! UN slams US Prez for fund pull off to WHO in the midst of the pandemic!

Washington DC, April 15: And the 'Word War' begins! United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday slammed United States President Donald Trump's move of announcing to pull off the funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) saying, "in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic it is not the time to act upon".

 

 

The announcement of Trump did not go down well with the UN as the WHO is part of the UN. "It is not the time to cut the funding for the operations of the World Health Organization or to question errors. Its a time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,” Guterres spoke against the move.

 

Hours before Guterres's comments, Trump had directed his administration to halt all the funding of the WHO. "Today I'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization. We will redirect global health and directly work with others. All of the aid that we send will be discussed at very, very powerful letters," Trump said during a press conference. He said they are going to channel this money to those areas which most need it.

 

Trump further stated that the US will "assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.” The world depends on the WHO to work with countries to make sure accurate information about health threats is shared promptly but it has failed to carry out its "basic duty" and "must be held accountable" he said.

 

Last week, Trump had criticized the Geneva-based Health agency saying, it is being "China-centric” and alleging that WHO had “criticized” his ban on travel from China as the outbreak was spreading from the city of Wuhan, although Trump himself spoke positively of China at that time. He had tweeted, “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”

 

However, the American Medical Association has come forward and said that the action taken to call off the funds is "dangerous step in the wrong direction. Fighting a global pandemic requires international cooperation and reliance on science and data. Cutting funding to the WHO – rather than focusing on solutions – is a dangerous move at a precarious moment for the world,” the AMA said in a statement.

 

Meanwhile, the US has contributed more than $452m including nearly $119 million in assessed funding to the WHO last year, making it by far the biggest donor. The organization’s budget for 2018-2019 was around $6bn. The deadly pandemic has already killed more than 125,000 people including more than 25,000 in the U.S.