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.
This is the letter sent to Dr. Tedros of the World Health Organization. It is self-explanatory! pic.twitter.com/pF2kzPUpDv
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2020
Trump is already facing criticism, but he’s right: The WHO’s many mistakes throughout this crisis suggest that the U.S. is not getting an adequate return on its investment.
We are, after all, the WHO’s largest source of funding. WHO leaders’ refusal to investigate and demand answers from China for the virus it unleashed upon the world suggests that there is a problematic connection between the world agency and China’s brutal authoritarian regime. Something isn’t right, and Trump wants answers.
If anything, Trump is too forgiving. In his letter, he gives the WHO the benefit of the doubt and suggests the WHO’s delinquency is a result of its leadership. He notes that former WHO Director-General Harlem Brundtland did not hesitate to criticize China during the SARS pandemic or issue a worldwide travel advisory. The problem, he suggests, is Tedros.
But the fact is that the WHO stopped fulfilling its role long ago. The WHO was created to coordinate international resources and distribute information in the event of disease outbreaks. But in recent years, it has begun to focus on unrelated subjects, such as transgenderism and which foods should be included in school lunches.
There is certainly a need for a global organization that can help countries cooperate and navigate global health crises. But the WHO’s coronavirus failures prove that it is not that organization any longer.
