President Trump on Tuesday announced that he has ordered a halt to U.S. funding to the World Health Organization while a probe into the group’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is conducted:
“American taxpayers provide between $400 million and $500 million per year to the W.H.O.,” Trump said. “In contrast, China contributes roughly $40 million.”
The president said that “the W.H.O. failed to adequately obtain, vet, and share information in a timely and transparent fashion … the W.H.O. failed in this basic duty and must be held accountable”:
“Had the W.H.O. 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 W.H.O. willingly took China’s assurances at face value and defended the actions of the Chinese government, even praising China for its so-called ‘transparency.'”