Donald Trump says the US is ‘terminating’ its relationship with the World Health Organisation
- The US president is accusing the United Nations agency of bowing to pressure from China and allowing the Covid-19 pandemic to spread out of control
- ‘We have detailed the reforms that [the WHO] must make and engage with them directly, but they have refused to act,’ Trump said
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he has terminated Washington’s relationship with the World Health Organisation (WHO), accusing the United Nations agency of bowing to pressure from China and allowing the Covid-19 pandemic to spread out of control.
“We have detailed the reforms that [the WHO] must make and engage with them directly, but they have refused to act,” Trump said in a White House press briefing.
“Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organisation and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs.”
Trump reiterated his assertion that China covered up the virulence of the coronavirus that first emerged in Wuhan, a major city with international air transport links, and that authorities there allowed international flights to depart after they imposed a strict lockdown on January 23.
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Donald Trump says the US is ‘terminating its relationship with the World Health Organisation’
“China’s cover up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has caused more than 100,000 American lives, and over a million lives worldwide,” he said. “Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organisation and pressured the World Health Organisation to mislead the world.”