In a four-page
letter addressed to WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus, the US President
criticized the stages of the body's response to the outbreak of the disease
since December.
Trump insisted that
the international health agency shares the responsibility for the large number
of deaths in the crisis and further threatened to pull US funding permanently
and also reconsider US membership in the organization, if it does not commit to
“major substantive improvements” within 30 days.
The US President who
disclosed that talks on reforming the WHO had already begun, had earlier called
the UN health body a "puppet of China".
The letter read in
parts;
This is coming after
Trump temporarily halted funding to the organization last month. The US President
who faces re-election this year and has repeatedly been criticized over the way
he's been handling the Coronavirus pandemic, has consistently blamed China for
trying to cover up the outbreak and also accused the WHO of failing to hold
Beijing to account.
China has however
denied the allegations numerous times, while also arguing that the country had
released information "in an open, transparent, responsible and timely
manner".
The president of
China, Xi Jinping during an annual meeting of the World Health Assembly on
Monday, said China would support the WHO conducting an investigation, while
defending that his country has “acted with openness, transparency and
responsibility.”
The US has more than 1.5 million of the world's 4.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, with more than 90,000 deaths.
"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 World
Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China.
"My
administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the
organization. But action is needed quickly. We do not have time to waste.
"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
World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from
China.
"My
administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the
organization. But action is needed quickly. We do not have time to waste."
Trump also
criticized the WHO for the "political gamesmanship" of praising
China's strict domestic travel restrictions and being "inexplicably
against my closing of the United States border."
He highlighted WHO's
reaffirmation of "China's now-debunked claim that the Coronavirus could
not be transmitted between humans."
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