The relationship between the United States and the World Health Organization has ended.
President Trump said in a Rose Garden address on Friday that he would terminate the relationship between the U.S. and the WHO immediately, accusing the organization of taking directives from China.
“China has total control over the World Health Organization despite paying only $40 million per year compared to what the United States has been paying, which is approximately $450 million a year,” Trump said. “We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engaged with them directly, but they have refused to act.”
“Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent, global public health needs,” Trump said.
Trump, who has been critical of the WHO’s response to the coronavirus, lashed out at Chinese Communist Party officials over a lack of transparency surrounding the coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people in the U.S.
“Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities,” he said. “Countless lives have been taken and profound economic hardship has been inflicted all around the globe. They strongly recommended against me doing the early ban from China, but I did it anyway, and it was proven to be 100% correct.”
Trump, who refused to take questions from reporters after the briefing, accused Chinese officials of covering up information about the late 2019 outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan.
“The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government,” Trump said. “China’s cover-up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has cost more than 100,000 American lives and over a million lives worldwide.”
source washingtonexaminer
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