Trump’s plan to halt funding for WHO draws widespread criticism
President Donald J. Trump said Tuesday that the United States will halt funding for WHO, citing concerns regarding the agency’s relationship with China and its criticism of the president’s implementation of travel bans early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Since its establishment in 1948, the American people have generously supported the World Health Organization to provide better health outcomes for the world and, most importantly, to help prevent global health crises,” Trump said during his daily White House briefing. “With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns whether America’s generosity has been put to the best use possible.”
Trump previously said he was considering cutting funding for WHO. He has been critical of the agency’s response to the pandemic, its support of China’s efforts, and has suggested that action should have been taken earlier to prevent spread of the virus. He said the U.S. would stop funding WHO while reviewing what he called the agency’s “role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”
Trump’s decision has drawn widespread criticism, including from United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, who said now is not time to look back and analyze how some countries responded to the crisis.
“It is also not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus,” Guterres said. “Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences.”
AMA president Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA, said defunding WHO “is a dangerous step in the wrong direction that will not make defeating COVID-19 easier.”
“Fighting a global pandemic requires international cooperation and reliance on science and data. Cutting funding to the WHO — rather than focusing on solutions — is a dangerous move at a precarious moment for the world,” Harris said in a statement.
At a press conference, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, directly addressed Trump’s announcement, calling for global solidarity and emphasizing that the virus “does not discriminate between nationalities.”
The U.S. is WHO’s largest donor, providing more than $893 million in contributions in 2018 and 2019.
“The United States of America has been a long-standing and generous friend for WHO, and we hope it will continue to be so,” Tedros said. “We regret the decision of the president of the United States to order a hold in funding to the World Health Organization. With support from the people and government of the United States, WHO works to improve the health of many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.”
In a joint statement, several infectious disease associations said the decision to defund WHO “is against all of our best interests” and will hurt efforts to fight COVID-19 and future pandemics.
The heads of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, HIV Medicine Association, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists called on Congress to “use all means at its disposal to counter this move.”
“We must all be allies against this threat; this is not the time to stand alone,” they wrote. “WHO provides technical and scientific expertise in countries with limited resources with services that are essential to containing the impacts of infectious disease threats and being better prepared for the inevitable outbreaks to come. The ability of the United States to protect its people depends on those efforts. In addition, with its capacity to mobilize global research and effective sharing of data, the WHO plays a pivotal role in enabling united efforts against this and future pandemics.” – by Eamon Dreisbach
Reference:
WHO. Contributors. https://open.who.int/2018-19/contributors/contributor. Accessed April 15, 2020.
Disclosures: Guterres and Tedros report no relevant financial disclosures.
Perspective
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My first response to the news that funding to WHO was halted from the U.S. was, like most people, shock. It is almost like Kubler-Ross’ stages of grief when somebody dies — first denial, then anger followed by sadness. I don't think I'll ever get to the last stage of adjusting to the potential loss of U.S. WHO support, which is acceptance. My overall feeling is kind of like a mixture of the beginning stages, “this can’t be” and then anger from one aspect, which is the financial ramifications of not giving money to an organization that has been historically the disease army corps that has met the world’s needs in fighting and combating pandemics in the past.
To me, it is not only a potential financial blow, but metaphorical at the core. Overall, $500 million is not chump change. However, the idea that we’re even bringing this up shows symbolically that we’re not fighting this pandemic globally. It’s just like the response to COVID-19 in the U.S., where one state is doing one thing and another state is doing something different. It shows that there’s little regard for the fact that the virus doesn’t care what state you’re in, or what country you’re in; it’s just going around the world. It is even more shocking and hurtful that you can do this and take this kind of action visibly and boldly on the broad world stage. It means a lot that we’re just going to fight this on our own, and we don’t care what others do, and we’re not going to give to the common good.
What is not realized is giving to the common good comes back — it’s not like you’re giving to charity, where you often never see tangible results. When you give to WHO, all of that comes back to you because it’s global. They help and empower other countries with a transmissible disease, which could affect you, too, if the disease occurs in the U.S.
Trump said his three least favorite words were “World,” “Health,” and “Organization.” He’s using a lot of bombastic rhetoric, which he often does. But to say this in the middle of a pandemic, when your country is the worst in the world in many aspects, seems very short-sighted. It creates uncertainty and divisions in society and makes it appear that we're not all in this together. Some people might understand; some people won't. There will be a lot of debate — but why do we need debate, anger and emotion right now? We need to focus on one thing, which is not about whether or not we need to defund WHO while your mom or your grandma is in the ICU. We don't need these distractions right now. We need to remember that the first word in our country is, after all, “United.”
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