Trump 'terminates' relationship with WHO over Covid-19 pandemic, says China has 'total control' over health body
US President Donald Trump has announced that he is “terminating” the country’s relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO) and that the US will redirect funds intended for the agency to other global health projects.
“We have detailed the reforms that it (WHO) must make and engage with them directly, but they have refused to act. Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the WHO and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs,” said Trump during a briefing on May 29.
The president also said that China had “instigated a global pandemic” that has cost more than 100,000 American lives and over a million lives worldwide, the world is now suffering as a result of the “malfeasance of the Chinese government,” and that the “world needs answers from China on the virus.” Trump alleged that Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the WHO and pressured the organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities. “Countless lives have been taken and profound economic hardship has been inflicted all around the globe...China has total control over the WHO, despite only paying 40 million dollars per year compared to what the US has been paying, which is approximately $450 million a year,” he said.
(Getty Images)
What caused this severing of ties?
In April, Trump announced that he is halting funding to the WHO while his administration reviews the organization's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He then threatened to permanently end all funding to the WHO if the organization did not commit to significant improvements. “It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world. The only way forward for the WHO is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China. But action is needed quickly. We do not have time to waste,” said Trump’s May 18 letter addressed to Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO.
“That is why it is my duty, as President of the United States, to inform you that, if the WHO does not commit to substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of US funding to the WHO permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization. I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present time, is so clearly not serving America’s interests,” says Trump in the letter.
What are the implications?
The WHO is funded by several sources, which include international organizations, private donors, member states and its parent organization, the United Nations. Referred to as “assessed contributions,” each member state is required to pay dues to be a part of the organization. They are calculated relative to each country's wealth and population. The remaining mostly come from “voluntary contributions,” which are referred to donations from member states or partners.
A breakup of WHO’s financial flow (specified voluntary contributions updated till the fourth quarter of 2019) shows that the US is the biggest donor, representing 15.18% of the funding, followed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at 12.12%, and the GAVI Alliance at 8.18%. The others include United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (7.91%), Germany (5.33%), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or UNOCHA (4.48%), Rotary International (3.32%), European Commission (3.05%), World Bank (3%), and Japan (2.5%), among others. China’s contribution stands at 0.21% in the financial flow.
Among all the countries, the US is by far the largest donor. Its contributions to the WHO during the two-year funding cycle of 2018 to 2019 is $893 million. A breakup of the estimates shows that assessed contributions from the US are $236,912K (amounts invoiced to each member state for the current biennium), while specified voluntary contributions are $656,092K (totaling 893,004K). The numbers have been updated till the fourth quarter of 2019. Estimates of China’s contribution to the WHO shows assessed contributions were $75,796K and specified voluntary contributions were $10,184K, totaling $85,980K.
The rift is poorly timed, given the need for international coordination and cooperation to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, say experts. Besides, the US pulling out of the WHO could be a major setback for critical program areas that received such as polio eradication (27.4% of US funding was allocated to this), increasing access to essential health and nutrition services (17.4%), vaccine-preventable diseases (7.7%), tuberculosis (5.74%), establishing effective coordination and operations support (5%), infectious hazard management (4.66%), HIV and hepatitis (4.65%), and country-health emergency preparedness and the International Health Regulations, 2005, (4.45%), among several others. If these initiatives face a setback, death and suffering will surge, say experts.
Some of the other projects where US funding was used includes emergency operations (2.97%), prevent and control outbreaks (2.33%), reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (2.24%), strengthen surveillance, early warning and health information management (1.9%), access to medicines and health technologies and strengthening regulatory capacity (1.85%), neglected tropical diseases (1.8%), emergency core services (1.71), and malaria (1.42%) among others.
“It’s important to remember that the WHO is a platform for cooperation among countries. Walking away from this critical institution in the midst of an historic pandemic will hurt people both in the US and around the world,” Donna McKay, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, told Reuters.
Globally, over 5,931,290 coronavirus cases have been reported as of May 30, and 365,034 have died in the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins.