WHO funding

At this time of a worldwide health crisis of Covid-19, the US president’s instruction to his administration to halt funding to the World health Organization (WHO) is deplorable, and as unwise as it could be. President Trump has accused the WHO of mishandling the coronavirus pandemic in the world. According to Trump’s hyperbolic statement, the WHO had failed in its basic duty to contain the virus and must be held accountable for this negligence. President Trump insists that the WHO’s lack of responsibility prompted China’s ‘disinformation’ about the virus that likely led to a wider outbreak. It is noteworthy that the United States is the biggest donor to the WHO whose head office is in Geneva. America contributes nearly 15 percent of the WHO’s total budget. The world reaction to this Trump caprice has been befitting and prompt.

First the director-general of the UN health agency regretted that President Trump had taken this hasty decision to halt funding when it needed help the most. He was right in pointing out that this is the time for the world to unite in the common struggle against an enemy that can target anyone, anywhere. The DG also reaffirmed the WHO commitment to keep “working without fear or favour”. Similar statements have been issued by the head of the UN, Guterres, the head of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the EU foreign policy chief, the US Center for Disease Control, and the American Medical Association. The former Ebola coordinator for the US Department of Health termed it nothing but an attempt by President Trump to distract from his own history of downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis and his administration’s failure to prepare for it.

At this crucial juncture of world history we expect all the countries of the world to unite, and all the relevant international institutions to work together to fight this menace. The WHO may have been slow in its response but for that matter nearly all countries in the world took some time to realize the magnitude of this danger. Targeting the WHO for any imaginary or real lapses at this moment is neither sane not suggestible. The WHO has a track record of fighting several battles in the past against AIDS, Congo fever, ebola, malaria, polio, SARS, and many other diseases. In all these battles it has displayed success to varying degrees. Where it fails or makes an error of judgment, it is not entirely of its own making. For example, the fight against polio is being lost in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan not because of the WHO but due to many other factors. President Trump must reconsider his direction and restore funding to this apex health body in the world.