Trump Finally Severes US Ties With WHO

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has said that it will be severing ties with the UN health agency, the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In an ongoing row with the organisation, Trump had alleged that the organisation is being controlled by fellow global economic big wheeler, China, and that the slow response to the outbreak by the WHO caused the disease to spread as wide as it did.

Trump was quoted as saying, “China has total control over the World Health Organisation despite only paying $40 million per year compared to what the United States has been paying, which is approximately $450 million a year.

“The world needs answers from China on the virus. We must have transparency. Why is it that China shut off infected people from Wuhan to all other parts of China?

“It didn’t go to Beijing, it went nowhere else, but they allowed them to freely travel throughout the world, including Europe and the United States.”

Trump also accused the organisation of failing to make the “greatly needed reform” proffered by the United States, stating that the US “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.”

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Trump had issued a letter to the Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus, asking, among other requests, that the organisation make some internal improvement or be cut off from being funded.

The United States stands as the biggest contributor to the health agency, contributing about 15 per cent to the budget of the organisation.