US President Donald Trump has said he is going to halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) because it has “failed in its basic duty” in its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
He accused the UN agency of mismanaging and covering up the spread of the virus after it emerged in China, and said it must be held accountable.
In response, the UN chief said it was “not the time” to cut funds to the WHO.
Mr Trump has been under fire for his own handling of the pandemic.
He has sought to deflect persistent criticism that he acted too slowly to stop the virus’s spread by pointing to his decision in late January to place restrictions on travel from China.
He has accused the WHO of having “criticised” that decision and of being biased towards China more generally.
“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,” Mr Trump told a news conference at the White House on Tuesday.
The WHO is yet to directly respond but UN Secretary General António Guterres said the international community should be uniting “in solidarity to stop this virus”.
“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,” he said.
What is the WHO and who funds it?
The WHO was founded in 1948 and has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. It is the UN agency responsible for global public health, with 194 member states, and aims to “promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable”.
Its funding is made up of membership fees – which are known as “assessed contributions” and calculated based on wealth and population – and voluntary contributions.
The US is the WHO’s biggest single funder, providing $400m (£316m) in 2018-19 – just under 15% of its total budget.
China’s contribution in 2018-19 was almost $76m in assessed contributions and about $10m in voluntary funding, according to the WHO website.
The second-largest funder is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which provides 9.76% of the WHO’s funds. The UK gives the most of any country apart from the US.
The organisation launched an appeal in March for $675m to help fight the coronavirus pandemic and is reported to be planning a fresh appeal for at least $1bn.
Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and philanthropist, said on Twitter: “Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds.”
What is Donald Trump’s argument?
“With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns whether America’s generosity has been put to the best use possible,” the US president said.
The US has by far the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths worldwide- with more than 600,000 cases and 26,000 deaths.
Mr Trump accused the WHO of having failed to adequately assess the outbreak when it first emerged in the city of Wuhan.
“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,” he told reporters.
“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.”
White House reporters pointed out, however, that Mr Trump himself praised China’s response to the outbreak and downplayed the danger of the virus at home.
After Mr Trump put travel restrictions on China at the end of January, the WHO did not criticise the US directly. Instead it continued to say it did not recommend restrictions on travel and trade.
(c) BBC
I suggest the US extend this funding cut to the whole of the UN. The whole organisation is just a bureaucratic, jobs for the boys club. The sole purpose of this UN is the let Russia, China and get away with terrorism through the ability to veto any actions against fellow state sponsors of terrorism.
Yes. The WHO is just an appendage of the UN. Both organisations are dominated by corrupt trash from shithole countries that hate western civilisation.
Here’s a timeline for what WHO did. I don’t understand what they could have done more trying to find out about the virus. It would have been better to blame the national leaders that didn’t follow the advice given by the WHO, or refused to use the tests given early by the WHO! In times like this we need international organisation like WHO more than ever
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/08-04-2020-who-timeline—covid-19
31 Dec 2019
China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province. A novel coronavirus was eventually identified.
1 January 2020
WHO had set up the IMST (Incident Management Support Team) across the three levels of the organization: headquarters, regional headquarters and country level, putting the organization on an emergency footing for dealing with the outbreak.
4 January 2020
WHO reported on social media that there was a cluster of pneumonia cases – with no deaths – in Wuhan, Hubei province.
5 January 2020
WHO published our first Disease Outbreak News on the new virus. This is a flagship technical publication to the scientific and public health community as well as global media. It contained a risk assessment and advice, and reported on what China had told the organization about the status of patients and the public health response on the cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan.
10 January 2020
WHO issued a comprehensive package of technical guidance online with advice to all countries on how to detect, test and manage potential cases, based on what was known about the virus at the time. This guidance was shared with WHO’s regional emergency directors to share with WHO representatives in countries.
Based on experience with SARS and MERS and known modes of transmission of respiratory viruses, infection and prevention control guidance were published to protect health workers recommending droplet and contact precautions when caring for patients, and airborne precautions for aerosol generating procedures conducted by health workers.
12 January 2020
China publicly shared the genetic sequence of COVID-19.
13 January 2020
Officials confirm a case of COVID-19 in Thailand, the first recorded case outside of China.
14 January 2020
WHO’s technical lead for the response noted in a press briefing there may have been limited human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus (in the 41 confirmed cases), mainly through family members, and that there was a risk of a possible wider outbreak. The lead also said that human-to-human transmission would not be surprising given our experience with SARS, MERS and other respiratory pathogens.
20-21 January 2020
WHO experts from its China and Western Pacific regional offices conducted a brief field visit to Wuhan.
22 January 2020
WHO mission to China issued a statement saying that there was evidence of human-to-human transmission in Wuhan but more investigation was needed to understand the full extent of transmission.
22- 23 January 2020
The WHO Director- General convened an Emergency Committee (EC) under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) to assess whether the outbreak constituted a public health emergency of international concern. The independent members from around the world could not reach a consensus based on the evidence available at the time. They asked to be reconvened within 10 days after receiving more information.
28 January 2020
A senior WHO delegation led by the Director-General travelled to Beijing to meet China’s leadership, learn more about China’s response, and to offer any technical assistance.
While in Beijing, Dr. Tedros agreed with Chinese government leaders that an international team of leading scientists would travel to China on a mission to better understand the context, the overall response, and exchange information and experience.
30 January 2020
The WHO Director-General reconvened the Emergency Committee (EC). This was earlier than the 10-day period and only two days after the first reports of limited human-to-human transmission were reported outside China. This time, the EC reached consensus and advised the Director-General that the outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The Director-General accepted the recommendation and declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (2019-nCoV) a PHEIC. This is the 6th time WHO has declared a PHEIC since the International Health Regulations (IHR) came into force in 2005.
3 February 2020
WHO releases the international community’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan to help protect states with weaker health systems.
11-12 February 2020
WHO convened a Research and Innovation Forum on COVID-19, attended by more than 400 experts and funders from around the world, which included presentations by George Gao, Director General of China CDC, and Zunyou Wu, China CDC’s chief epidemiologist.
16-24 February 2020
The WHO-China Joint mission, which included experts from Canada, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore and the US (CDC, NIH) spent time in Beijing and also travelled to Wuhan and two other cities. They spoke with health officials, scientists and health workers in health facilities (maintaining physical distancing). The report of the joint mission can be found here: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf
11 March 2020
Deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction, WHO made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.
13 March 2020
COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund launched to receive donations from private individuals, corporations and institutions.
18 March 2020
WHO and partners launch the Solidarity Trial, an international clinical trial that aims to generate robust data from around the world to find the most effective treatments for COVID-19.
The WHO is run by a trash non-doctor from the third world with a penchant for filthy dictatorships. The chicoms knew that human-to-human transmission was taking place as early as December or even November. Their whistle-blowers were silenced. The chicoms allowed or even encouraged their people to fly to areas of high chicom immigration such as the US, Italy, UK and others at the rate of thousands per day throughout January, thus rendering those areas and the world helpless. Direct flights were coming in from Wuhan to Milan, London and numerous US hubs. This was the start of the pandemic. The chicoms are responsible: for their filthy hygiene practices, wet markets, bat virus labs and most of all their filthy lying govt, which continues to deny responsibility.
China already gave us swine flu, H1N1, Asian flu, SARS (close relative of covid and also from bats) and bird flu.
In the US, compare New York and New Jersey to, say, Montana and West Virginia.
Chicom virus deaths, so far, by population:
— New York (9% Asian): 29 per 100,000
— New Jersey (10% Asian): 13 per 100,000
— Montana (0.9% Asian): 0.6 per 100,000
— West Virginia (0.8% Asian): 0.2 per 100,000
I didn’t say that you can’t blame the Chinese, only that we need an international organisation like WHO. You can’t blame China for the Swine Flu, that originated in Mexico.
Then you’ve epidemics with it’s origin in the western countries too that killed a lot of people world wide. That’s why we need to be prepared since this will happen again, it’s only a matter of time.
“The 2009 swine H1N1 flu pandemic — responsible for more than 17,000 deaths worldwide — originated in pigs from a very small region in central Mexico, a research team headed by investigators at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is reporting.”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160627160935.htm
“Mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a fatal condition that affects the nervous system. In an affected animal, the brain develops tiny holes, making the animal lose control over its movements and changing its behavior. Mad cow disease spread in British herds in the mid-1980s after they were fed the processed animal remains of sheep infected with scrapie, a closely related brain-wasting disease.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mad-cow-disease-basic-questions/
Are you trying to imply that Britain and Mexico can be compared to China, an evil communist regime that has inflicted death and misery on the world? Pretty absurd if you are. Of course the world needs a health organisation, but it needs to be run by top flight medical scientists, not corrupt third world dross, in order to be fit for purpose. The only correct attitude to have to China and its client the WHO, is contempt, loathing and an iron determination to make the chicoms pay up. Not to punish them, that would be pointless, but to try to help the globally economy get going again. Half their GDP: $6trillion, is the amount to push for, at least for starters. To be distributed proportionately. If they do not, then they need to be completely disconnected from the world economy, in the same way that should have happened to the putinazis but didn’t.
Now is the time for left and right ideologies to unite in this grim struggle. Instead of that, the left see the chicom virus as an opportunity to inflict another, far more deadly plague on civilisation : socialism.
I didn’t try to defend China, I just pointed out a mistake in your post accusing China of being the origin of the Swine Plague
H1N1 was largely a Chinese problem, like all these other outbreaks of pestilence. Chinese criminal gangs were deliberately infecting pigs to force the price down so they could sell it on as healthy stock. It is an evil country, ruled by some of the worst people in the world who care less than nothing about their own people’s well being and even less about the world.
That terrible socialism 😉
https://www.munknee.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Norway.jpg
I’m glad that I’m living in a country where social welfare is a top priority!
I know which country I prefer, except for the climate!
We’ve 16 degrees today, it’s almost like the summer is here already 😀
Democratic socialism only works in a homogenous society where capitalism is allowed to thrive. The Scandies will soon find it unworkable when the effects of mass immigration of feckless but fecund people start to come through. In the worst cases, the authoritarian model reigns supreme : China : 80 million deaths, Russia and its occupied territories: 40-60 million.
In Britain, every time the Labour Party gets power, it always bankrupts the country and leaves mass unemployment. The purpose of socialist parties is to create the appropriate conditions for the imposition of full on socialism. No authoritarian socialist regime has ever given up power voluntarily and I include hitler’s national socialists in that category. Naziism and its close relative fascism are left ideologies, which is why hitler and Stalin were so easily drawn to each other and why both the far right and far left worship putler today.
The British democratic free market capitalist business model adapted by America and so many others has pulled hundreds of millions, maybe even billions out of poverty. It is far from perfect, but there is nothing else remotely comparable in terms of success.
Why would it only be possible with a homogeneous society. The economy only got better over the recent years. It is a blatant lie and absolutely unfounded.
I just explained why, you idiot. Third world immigrants are net consumers of the socialist welfare state, ie they take out more than they put in. In order to be productive in a high tax society, you would need to earn at least €40k/year; likely a lot more. Add to that the undeniable fact that third world immigrants are more fertile than the indigenous population by a factor of 300%.
Yes, but that is not true. Especially in countries that have an abundance of low skilled jobs (most of the “natives” have other jobs) , immigrants are not net consumers. Also not in the UK: I have read quite a lot of studies about that for my thesis. Of course, they use more welfare than natives, but that doesn’t mean they are net consumers on average. This is a lie that is repeatedly in populist newspapers (such as the Daily Mail and other Rupert Murdoch newspapers), but in most countries and in most situations, it is not true.
The UK government has always abused this argument for austerity measures, as they are pretending the welfare state is in deep problems. In reality, the UK spends very little on welfare, especially in comparison to other OECD countries. Yes, more immigrants are unemployed, but usually, it is not a majority. Add to this that the lion share of costs the state incurs for each individual is because of education. Immigrants do not go to European schools as most of them lived somewhere else when they were young. If they get a job, they contribute all taxes they pay to the treasury and take none.
In fact, there are UK studies that show that in fact, natives are net consumers, while migrants aren’t. This sounds weird, but it makes sense, The UK government spends more than it earns (thus they have a public deficit, like any other country). The government spends more on welfare and education then they earn. So the average person is a net consumer. However, most migrants did not go to British schools, so those of them that work, only contribute to the treasury. This offsets the higher unemployment rates among immigrants by a large margin.
The numbers you mentioned are based on literally nothing, as there is no minimum of what you should earn, as the only condition of being a net contributor is that you pay more than you take. Also, immigrants may get more children, but as they grow up in the UK and go to school, 2nd generation migrants have much lower unemployment rates.
Also: just think about this. Sweden now has a lot of “fresh” immigrants. Most newcomers are unemployed on day 1, which makes sense. At the very beginning, they may consume most of the welfare benefits, but this will gradually decrease once they learn the language and get a job.
Over the last few years, most immigrants were at the very beginning. And even at this stage, in which migrants consumed most, the state finances were fine and there was no major deficit. Let’s use Sweden as an example. They have had a lot of immigrants, and they have the world’s most generous welfare system. Since 2014, the public debt has only decreased to around 38%, one of the lowest in the EU (it is a third of the public debt of the UK, even with this extensive welfare system and a lot of refugees).
As most immigrants will be in Sweden for longer, the employment rate has been rising. Don’t tell me they don’t work, that is bullshit, you can just find these facts online. The expenses will only go down over time. So there is no way the current system in Sweden is unsustainable. Of course, the Conservatives want you to believe in this bullshit, so they can further dismantle the welfare system, but the immigrants are not threatening the sustainability of the Swedish welfare system. Yes: they may get more children, but their employment rates will be closer to those of natives. You called me an idiot, but you could have do some thinking yourself and then you would have discovered that your conclusions are based on populist media, hatred, xenophobia and probably a fear of losing your job to an immigrant, and not on facts or just simple logic.
Why do I often mention the UK? I had to do research in the UK related to the welfare system for my thesis, so that is why I am interested in the system, as well as the cultural and political aspects of it.
Every word of what you write is leftist fantasy, ignorance and lies. In Britain, 50% of all income tax is paid by just 5% of the working population. You would have to be on £40k/yr just to cover the cost of welfare services provided.
Analysis of Government figures published in 2019 shows that the richest workers, estimated as those earning more than £75,300 a year, pay just over 50 per cent of the income tax collected by the Treasury. Unskilled immigrants contribute nothing because they consume more than they put in. They do contribute to one thing though : crime stats such as thieving and rapes.
There is nothing leftist about it, nor it is ignorance or a lie. Very easy to call it a lie, while you are wrong yourself. These are studies by academics I am mentioning. Numbers are not leftist or right wing, they are numbers, and you can calculate how much people contribute to the state and how much they cost them.
You are like Trump, everything that doesn’t suit you is leftist or fake news.
The numbers you mention say exactly nothing about how much money immigrants bring in.
Simionescu, M., Bilan, Y., & Mentel, G. (2017). Economic effect of migration from Poland
to the UK
OECD. (2012). The United Kingdom experience of post-enlargement worker inflows from new EU
member countries
Dustmann, C., & Frattini, T. (2014). The fiscal effects of immigration to the UK. The Economic
Journal, 124(580), 593-643.
George, A., Meadows, P., & Metcalf, H. (2011). Impact of Migration on the Consumption of Education
and Children’s Services and the Consumption of Health Services, Social Care and Social
Services. National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London.
There is just no way it will affect Sweden much, and if it would, Sweden would already be bankrupt.
You are an imbecile. Unskilled workers pay almost zero income tax; they get tax credits instead. The pathetic amount they do put in would not even cover their housing subsidies, let alone all the other free stuff they receive. Leftism is a mental disorder, as the drivel you post proves over and over again.
You left out the part about immigrants sending a large percentage of any income they have back home and NOT in the country they’re working. There’s your thesis.
Bingo.
Not to be combative but when the North Sea oil starts running low( like it already is) who is going to pay for all this?
Because soon all those benefits will be strictly your tax dollars at work.
And scale matters. Even the most optimistic cost projections for “Health Care For All ” are in the 20 TRILLION dolllar range.
We had universal healthcare in Norway long before the oil, since 1956. Germany since 1883!
Where do you do the best use of money located for health, hiring medical workers in the hospitals or paying for a lot of people in the insurance industri? Why is the healthcare system in the US the most expensive in the world?
https://miro.medium.com/max/863/1*KTkcFwCaURrE28eJprZg2A.png
Here is Sweden they have universal healthcare too, and they don’t have oil, only Volvo, SAAB, IKEA etc ;o)
The costs here is regulated like this:
Patient fees
– Hospital stay: max SEK 100/day
– Primary care: SEK 0–300, depending on the regional council
– Specialist or emergency visits: max SEK 400
High-cost ceiling
A patient never has to pay more than a total of SEK 1,150 for medical consultations in the course of 12 months. Any consultations exceeding that amount are free of charge. For prescription medication, nobody pays more than SEK 2,350 in a given 12-month period.
https://sweden.se/society/health-care-in-sweden/
Those numbers are a farce, probably from your library of memes…
Memewhile, Trump called it a hoax by the Democrats, and has anal buttsex with the Chinese on Twitter.
And now suddenly he cuts the budget of the organisation that is currently the world’s most important.
Also, the WHO send medical supplies and tests to countries that cannot afford it, such as Ukraine.
But of course the American public remains accepting it.
He continued to praise XI and China until the 27th of March, it’s only 19 days ago. In the meantime 24,000 Americans has died and he needs a scapegoat to put the blame on and picked WHO.
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1243407157321560071?lang=en
Yes he did indeed: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus,” Trump tweeted on January 24, “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!
That fatuous comment will come back to haunt him.
But the WHO aren’t scapegoats, they are guilty, but not as guilty as the chicoms.
And he was warned very early and WHO offered help with the tests, something he refused. After that he started to classify all meetings about the virus, continued to play golf and doing his campaigns as if nothing had happened.
As it happens, I dislike the Daily Mail, for a number of reasons. However, it has the facts straight about WHO in an article today.
Extracts:
Jan 23 – With the Emergency Committee split, Dr Tedros says he has decided not to declare the virus a public health emergency of international concern. Referencing the lockdown of Wuhan, which was announced the same day, he says he hopes ‘it will be effective and short in duration’. He praises China’s ‘cooperation and transparency’ in tackling the virus.
Dr Tedros says there is limited evidence of human-to-human transmission, mostly among families or doctors treating the virus. At this point, there are 584 confirmed cases and 17 deaths globally, including in Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Thailand and the US.
He recommends screening at airports and tells countries to put testing facilities in place, but stops short of recommending a travel ban.
Jan 28 – Dr Tedros and other senior WHO officials meet Xi Jinping in China, agreeing that a panel of experts should be sent to monitor the outbreak. He praises ‘the seriousness with which China is taking this outbreak, especially the commitment from top leadership and the transparency they have demonstrated’
Jan 29 – Dr Tedros gives a speech praising China’s efforts to contain the virus, saying the country ‘deserves our gratitude and respect’ for locking down swathes of the country to prevent the spread.
He notes a few cases of human-to-human spread outside China, which he says ‘is of grave concern’ and will be monitored closely.
Jan 30 – The WHO Emergency Committee reconvenes early and declares a public health emergency of international concern. It comes after confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission in Germany, Japan, Vietnam and the US
Dr Tedros again praises China for ‘setting a new standard for outbreak response’ with its lockdowns, and says the small number of cases outside the country – 98 – is ‘thanks to their efforts’
Despite noting that a majority of cases outside China have a history of travel to or from Wuhan, he again recommends no measures to curb international travel or trade.
Jan 31 – Donald Trump announces travel restrictions on people coming from China.
……
The chicoms and their lackeys, the WHO, have combined forces to fuck up the world.
Yeah, with ONLY a 40% accuracy rate. Would you use it?!
And meanwhile Nancy Pelosi was campaigning against Trump’s measures to mitigate the pandemic…in Chinatown 24 February. It looks like she accepted the China/WHO misinformation too.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5a75fb001567e3a58c1e98e851baf1f262e4f79524625985135cb75dfae550b.jpg
It won’t haunt him. He gets away with anything. If the media still backs him, he is fine.
https://www.mediamatters.org/lou-dobbs/lou-dobbs-poll-asks-if-trumps-response-coronavirus-has-been-superb-great-or-very-good
The Norwegian health minister today:
“Norway believes we must strengthen WHO in their work, not weaken the organization. This is certainly not the time to cut funding for the WHO, as the US President suggests. Of course, it is natural to evaluate WHO’s work when this is over, but that is to make them better. The answer to this situation is more international cooperation, not less, says Minister of Health Bent Høie following Tump’s statements to cut support for WHO. Norway is working with the World Health Organization (WHO) in this work. Norway has given its support to WHO as the leader and coordinator of global health work, he says, and continues: – At the same time, it is important to learn along the way. The world is in a situation it has never been in before and the work we do needs to be evaluated along the way and when we are through this pandemic.”
“It contained a risk assessment and advice, and reported on what China had told the organization about the status of patients and the public health response on the cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan.”
WHO have previous with China, the Sars virus started in China, and spread to over 26 countries. They failed by believing what the Chinese told them, and in my opinion should have been less trusting of the Chinese. Here is part of a WHO report from 2003.
“SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) – virus identified in 2003. SARS-CoV is thought to be an animal virus from an as-yet-uncertain animal reservoir, perhaps bats, that spread to other animals (civet cats) and first infected humans in the Guangdong province of southern China in 2002.”
Danmark just fucked up by letting them filthy kids loose again. Luckily i live in a danish proxy state in Germany. 😂
It’s the same situation in Norway, they will try to open kindergartens and schools but with some restrictions 🙁