<p>US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is cutting off funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) underscores yet again his poor leadership, crippled sense of judgement and lack of a moral compass. According to Trump, the WHO “failed in its basic duty” as it did not do enough to prevent the coronavirus’ spread in the initial stages. If the global health body has indeed been negligent, it should be held accountable but only after a proper review of its work is done by the international community, not now but after the current crisis is over. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, is not the time for the US or any other country to suspend funding to the WHO, when its leadership and stable functioning is imperative for the world. Trump’s own performance in dealing with the pandemic in the US has been abysmal. To deflect public attention away from his own failures, he has been blaming others. First, he targeted China, calling the coronavirus a ‘Chinese virus’ and accusing Beijing of hiding information on the threat. There may be some justification to it, and that too must be probed and China held to account. Now, Trump is directing his ire at WHO, accusing it of being “China-centric,” and of criticising him when he imposed a ban on travel from China. Suspending funding to the WHO for criticising him is petty. Besides, his allegations have little validity. There is no record of WHO officials naming the US in any of their statements on the travel ban. The global health body is always careful to avoid naming countries or leaders and their domestic policies in its statements. In mid-March, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom reprimanded governments for “alarming levels of inaction” but he did not name any country. It was not hard to guess, however, who the laggards were. Perhaps that riled Trump.</p>.<p>Trump’s retaliation is petty but its impact on the WHO’s global work will be enormous. In 2018-19, the US contributed nearly $900 million of the WHO’s total budget of $4.4 billion for that year. US suspension of funding will leave the WHO woefully short of funding at a critical time. Trump has said that a decision on the US’ future funding to WHO will be made after an ongoing review of its work is completed. Hopefully, some sense will prevail.</p>.<p>Trump’s ‘America First’ policy has seen him downsize the US’ participation in multilateral groupings and organisations. After pulling the US out of the UNHRC and UNESCO, he is cutting its commitments to the WHO. In effect, he is cutting US influence in global bodies.</p>
<p>US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is cutting off funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) underscores yet again his poor leadership, crippled sense of judgement and lack of a moral compass. According to Trump, the WHO “failed in its basic duty” as it did not do enough to prevent the coronavirus’ spread in the initial stages. If the global health body has indeed been negligent, it should be held accountable but only after a proper review of its work is done by the international community, not now but after the current crisis is over. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, is not the time for the US or any other country to suspend funding to the WHO, when its leadership and stable functioning is imperative for the world. Trump’s own performance in dealing with the pandemic in the US has been abysmal. To deflect public attention away from his own failures, he has been blaming others. First, he targeted China, calling the coronavirus a ‘Chinese virus’ and accusing Beijing of hiding information on the threat. There may be some justification to it, and that too must be probed and China held to account. Now, Trump is directing his ire at WHO, accusing it of being “China-centric,” and of criticising him when he imposed a ban on travel from China. Suspending funding to the WHO for criticising him is petty. Besides, his allegations have little validity. There is no record of WHO officials naming the US in any of their statements on the travel ban. The global health body is always careful to avoid naming countries or leaders and their domestic policies in its statements. In mid-March, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom reprimanded governments for “alarming levels of inaction” but he did not name any country. It was not hard to guess, however, who the laggards were. Perhaps that riled Trump.</p>.<p>Trump’s retaliation is petty but its impact on the WHO’s global work will be enormous. In 2018-19, the US contributed nearly $900 million of the WHO’s total budget of $4.4 billion for that year. US suspension of funding will leave the WHO woefully short of funding at a critical time. Trump has said that a decision on the US’ future funding to WHO will be made after an ongoing review of its work is completed. Hopefully, some sense will prevail.</p>.<p>Trump’s ‘America First’ policy has seen him downsize the US’ participation in multilateral groupings and organisations. After pulling the US out of the UNHRC and UNESCO, he is cutting its commitments to the WHO. In effect, he is cutting US influence in global bodies.</p>
