Coronavirus: Trump move to withhold WHO funding could ‘fundamentally weaken’ world’s ability to fight disease, says Hong Kong government adviser

Professor Keiji Fukuda says countries need to work together in battle against Covid-19

Head of University of Hong Kong’s school of public health says US president’s move will weaken the country

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Professor Keiji Fukuda, the head of the University of Hong Kong’s school of public health and a former assistant director general at the World Health Organisation, called the US decision to suspend funding ‘unwelcome’. Photo: Getty

Published: 10:14am, 16 Apr 2020Updated: 11:53am, 16 Apr 2020

President Donald Trump’s plan to halt US contributions to the World Health Organisation was unwelcome and could hamper global efforts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the head of the University of Hong Kong’s school of public health said.

Professor Keiji Fukuda, who worked as an assistant director general at the WHO before joining the university, made his remarks on Wednesday during an online dialogue session organised by HKU.

The United States is the global health agency’s biggest source of financial support, but on Tuesday Trump said he would suspend funding while his government investigated the organisation’s response to the first outbreak in China.

“The news is really unwelcome for several different reasons,” Fukuda said. “In the long term it is going to weaken both the US, which fundamentally depends on other countries in terms of addressing health issues. It is also going to fundamentally weaken the world’s ability to deal with these complex issues.”

The public health professor, one of the four expert advisers to the Hong Kong government on the Covid-19 epidemic, also said countries needed to work together when facing a common threat as “there is no country which can be an island in the face of a large outbreak”, and the WHO coordinated those efforts.