(Image source from: justthenews.com)
President Donald Trump recently announced temporary halt to the US funding to WHO citing that the organisation has been biased towards Chinese officials. This did ignite criticisms and a lot of constant to and fro among the Trump administration and Congress. Some cited it as a very poor decision, especially during a time of crisis like this one.
The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo informed that they need a fundamental reform of the World Health Organisation (WHO) following the lack of active handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic. He further said that US, which is the biggest donor to this UN organisation may never restore their funding back to normal.
While Mike Pompeo put forth his constant criticisms on the UN Body surrounding their lack of expertise on handling the Covid-19 outbreak, the Democrats accused the Trump administration of constantly trying to scapegoat their lack of expertise during the coronavirus outbreak.
In a letter issued to Donald Trump by the Democrat body, they have asked for immediate restoration of the funding that Trump suspended last week believing that the organisation has become “China-centric”.
Trump said that he believes the organisation failed to fight the misinformation and the lack of misplaced data that was showcased by the Chinese officials.
Mike Pompeo took that further saying that there needs to be immediate reforms and structural changes that need to be brought along in the UN organisation to further help restore the funding.
"Even more than that, it may be the case that the United States can never return to underwriting, having US taxpayer dollars go to the WHO," Pompeo said.
While WHO has straight out brushed aside all these charges made by the Trump administration, China has time and time clarified that they have been transparent about the process from the get go.
The US is the biggest donor to the WHO in 2019, funding over $400 million to the organisation which is around 15% of its total budget. The senior US officials have reported saying that the country and administration is likely going to redirect this funding to some other aid groups across the world.
Mike Pompeo told earlier this week that the administration believes that Beijing failed to report and contain the outbreak of this virus on the timely basis which are in breach to the WHO guidelines. He even accused the Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom saying that he failed to go public about China’s lack of competency surrounding the situation.
Pompeo said that it was WHO’s responsibility to ensure proper safety standards in the virology labs in Wuhan, China, which is where the outbreak first initiated.
The acting head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) also reported that they are going to watch the functions of WHO closely and assess whether it is being run properly and look for alternative partners outside of the body.
While the Trump administration’s decision of retraction of funding to WHO is not the last decision, there are chances that US Congress can pass a legislation to guarantee funding for WHO back again. But, in order for it to become a law, they need enough support, including that from Trump’s republicans to outnumber the veto.
By Somapika Dutta
