Coronavirus: Donald Trump halts US contributions to World Health Organisation during ‘review’
- US president says his administration will conduct an inquiry into WHO’s ‘role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread’ of the virus
- Earlier in the day, seven Republican senators demanded WHO records on communication with Chinese authorities between October 1 and March 12
“I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organisation while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organisation’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump said during the daily White House briefing on the pandemic. He said he planned a 60- to 90-day evaluation period during which funding would be held.
“Other nations and regions who followed WHO guidelines and kept their borders open to China accelerated the pandemic all around the world,” Trump said. “The WHO failed to investigate credible reports from sources in Wuhan that conflicted directly with the Chinese government’s official accounts.”
In a letter sent to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday, senators led by Florida’s Rick Scott and Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson charged the WHO with helping Beijing “cover up” the threat of the novel coronavirus, and called into question Congress’ continued funding of the United Nations health agency.