NEW YORK (TURKISH JOURNAL)- By Janet Ekstract – U.S. President Donald Trump excoriated the World Heath Organization (WHO) in his daily White House briefing on April 5 for its response on the coronavirus outbreak when he said: “They did a terrible job.” But WHO’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s response was clear: “Please quarantine politicizing COVID.” On Wednesday, he slammed the WHO for what he labeled as their “China-centric” policy and for being “wrong” about disagreeing with his initial travel ban, saying he would “put a hold” on funding to the organization. After journalists further questioned him about that, he backtracked and said: “We’re looking into it.”
The WHO chief emphasized it’s not time to “score political points” and urged the U.S. and China to join ranks to combat the coronavirus pandemic. He stressed that politicians shouldn’t be exploiting global political differences. Ghebreyesus added: “When there are cracks at a national level and global level that’s when the virus succeeds. For God’s sake, we have lost more than 60,000 citizens of the world.”
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his briefing on April 8 said: “It is my belief that the World Health Organization must be supported, as it is absolutely critical to the world’s efforts to win the war against Covid-19.” The secretary-general also called for everyone to unite to fight the virus. Guterres commented: “Now is the time for unity for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences.”
In step with the UN chief’s viewpoint, French President Emmanuel Macron offered his full support to WHO on Wednesday, in a phone call to WHO’s director-general. According to Reuters, an official of the French president stated that Macron reiterated his firm trust and support for WHO and echoed Ghebreyesus’s view that the WHO should not be stuck between a U.S. and China political row. Macron is known to be a huge supporter of multilateral organizations which Trump has often snubbed.
On the financial side, according to the State Department, the U.S. is WHO’s top donor, having provided over $400M in 2019. Due to Trump’s reevaluation of WHO funding, he has set a directive that before any donations are made to the WHO, they must get high-level clearance from his office. It’s expected that the State Department, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Agency for International Development will be affected. A State Department spokesperson sent a detailed statement including a list of grievances with the WHO criticizing it for advising against travel restrictions during the outbreak. The statement also made mention of WHO’s subpar attitude toward Taiwan in order to remain in good relations with China. There was indication in the statement that the U.S. desires to keep the WHO functioning at present. A spokesperson for the State Department commented: “There will be many lessons to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic, including where and how the WHO system fell short in fulfilling its mission so that we can avoid future crises. We believe a full assessment of WHO’s performance would be appropriate after we have addressed the current pandemic.”
Despite Trump’s skepticism about WHO, UN chief Guterres had nothing but praise for WHO staff when he made the following statement: “The World Health Organization, with thosands of its staff, is on the front lines, supporting Member States and their societies, especially the most vulnerable among them, with guidance, training, equipment and concrete life-saving services as they fight the virus.” The secretary-general added: “This virus is unprecedented in our lifetime and requires an unprecedented response.”
