President Trump on Tuesday announced that the US would suspend payments to the World Health Organization, saying the group had failed to report accurate information from China during the early stages of the pandemic.
“I am instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization possible in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” the president said from the Rose Garden during the daily coronavirus pandemic briefing.
“Everybody knows what is going on there. American taxpayers provide between $400 million and $500 million per year to the WHO. China contributes roughly $40 million,” the president continued.
He slammed the group for its initial opposition to travel bans, and said his own restrictions on travel from China announced on Jan. 31 saved “thousands and thousands” of American lives.
“The United States has a duty to insist upon full accountability, one of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the who was is disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations,” he continued.
The commander in chief said that if the WHO can’t be trusted to provide accurate information it should be held accountable.
“The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain and share information in a timely and transparent fashion. The world depends on the WHO to work with countries to ensure that accurate information about international health is shared in a timely manner,” he said.
“The WHO failed in this basic duty and must be held accountable. The who failed to investigate credible reports from sources in Wuhan that conflicted directly with the Chinese government’s official accounts,” Trump said, referring the Chinese city where the outbreak originated.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom had responded to trump’s earlier criticism by saying that no one should “politicize” the pandemic.