Feud Between Trump and WHO Director Deepens
Courtesy of usatoday.com
By Jeremy Perillo
A week after President Trump announced the U.S. will be suspending funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made a statement condemning a lack of global solidarity and partisan politics amidst the global pandemic.
“The cracks between people and the cracks between parties is fueling it,” Tedros said. “Don’t use this virus as an opportunity to fight against each other or score political points. It’s dangerous. It’s like playing with fire.”
The decision to suspend the nearly $400 million aid, the most of any other contributing country, was made pending an investigation into the organization’s “role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump said in his official announcement.
His other quarrel with the WHO’s response was its opposition to travel restrictions from China and other nations. While the organization saw these restrictions as an ineffective means of mitigating the oncoming pandemic, WHO did see them as an opportunity to buy the country’s time to prepare for what was coming.
Tedros does not see the global disunity as an efficient means of mitigating the coronavirus pandemic.
“We need global solidarity that’s cemented on genuine national unity,” he said in the same statement. “Without national unity and global solidarity, trust us, the worst is yet ahead of us. Let’s prevent this tragedy.”
In addition to Tedros’ pleas to put disagreements aside as the world grapples with a pandemic, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres sees the WHO as a critical element in eliminating the global spread of the coronavirus.
“Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe, and how all those involved reacted to the crisis,” he said in a statement. “But now is not that time.”
As to be expected, some Democrats and Republicans are split on this issue. Democrats, health groups/officials, and foreign leaders have displeasure with the timing of Trump’s move. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a strong stance against the decision.
“The President’s halting of funding to the WHO as it leads the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic is senseless….This decision is dangerous, illegal, and will be swiftly challenged,” Pelosi said in a statement.
On the other hand, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent a letter to President Trump praising his decision and calling on the administration to resume funding of the WHO, contingent on the Director-General’s resignation.
As the coronavirus enters the summer months, and hopefully, with the end of self-isolation for many Americans, the investigations and hindsight that will undoubtedly come as the country looks back on the devastating pandemic will offer a new wave of global and domestic politicization.
