The United States is now suffering the most Coronavirus deaths of all the world countries and President Donald Trump is trying to distance himself from the blame. He has launched an attack on the World Health Organization. America is the biggest contributor to the WHO and Trump has announced that this money flow will cease immediately.
The WHO is an offshoot of the United Nations and Trump accuses it of being " China centric ". and it had not taken a strong enough stand against the superpower. The US government will suspend WHO payments for sixty to ninety days while it conducts an investigation into the agency. This comes at a time when the WHO is heavily committed in helping small nations with scant resources to deal with this pandemic.
Trump is now accusing the WHO of promoting China's " disinformation " campaign about the virus that led to a wider outbreak that would have occurred. He attacked the organization for opposing his decision to restrict travel to China and said that WHO had been slow to declare the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. He has long criticised the United Nations for classifying China as a " developing country ".
In true Trump fashion, the president ignores his former speeches on this subject. At his briefing he was questioned by the media about his previous contention that China deserved praise for its handling of the crisis. On January 24 Trump has said " China has been working very hard to contain this virus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American people, I want to thank President Xi. "
Of course all this is simply politics. The American people go to the polls in November and Trump is seeking another four years in the White House. It now looks likely that his opponent will be Joe Biden, Barak Obama's vice president and there are clear indications that Trump's support has been slipping. Trump has been suggesting that an early end to the jobs stand-down may be implemented despite the virus continuing to run out of control.
Unfortunately, this pandemic completely wrecked the world order because of the measures taken to bring it under control. As a result, we are in recession and it is impossible to guess either the length or the intensity that this will persist.
Trump's self serving cessation of funds to the WHO will simply prolong the pandemic. This move provoked a comment from the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres who said " this is not the time to reduce resources to the WHO ".
Now it will all rest on how the American voters view this situation in November !
No comments:
Post a Comment