The World Health Organization downplayed the threat of the coronavirus and provided cover for China’s communist regime, leaving the world unprepared for the COVID-19 outbreak and its costs. This was not a minor lapse in judgment: It was a disastrous failure, and it should be treated as such.
President Trump is doing just that. In a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Trump said that the United States will permanently pull its funding from the U.N. body and “reconsider” its membership entirely unless the WHO commits to “major substantive improvements” over the next month. Trump did not specifically say what these improvements might be, but he did add that discussions between the U.S. and the agency’s leaders are already underway.
