EU backs WHO after Donald Trump threatens to permanently cut US funding

The European Union has said that it will back the World Health Organisation and multilateral efforts in the battle against the coronavirus on May 19. This comes just hours after US President Donald Trump, in a letter, threatened the WHO to cut its funding permamanently. However, the Brussel based organisation stood in opposition to Washington adding that it had already provided “essential fundings."

'Impartial evaluation'

On May 19, European Foreign affairs spokeswoman Virginie Battu Henriksson reportedly said that it was the time for solidarity and not for “finger-pointing” or undermining multilateral cooperation. Elaborating further she said that EU has sponsored a motion at WHO’s annual assembly to urge an “impartial independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the international response to the pandemic. Asserting that the EU backs WHO in its effort to mitigate COVID-19 outbreak, she revealed that the Brussels based organisation has already provided “additional funding” to support its efforts.

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Earlier on May 19, US President Donald Trump, in a scathing letter to Director-General of World Health Organisation (WHO) highlighted the health organisation's alleged 'failed response' in successfully tackling the COVID-19 pandemic by calling out the global organisation for its 'lack of independence' from People's Republic of China.

In a four-page letter, US reviewed the organisation's handling of the outbreak alleging that since December 2019, stating it had ignored 'credible reports' and had 'failed to independently investigate them' due to their affiliation with China. Trump warned them that if they didn't show 'substantive improvement' and 'independence' from China, US' temporary decision of halting funding to the health organisation would become 'permanent'.

The letter added that WHO made repeated claims about the virus that was 'grossly inaccurate and misleading', including mentioning at one point of time that 'human-to-human transmission does not occur in the new strain of Coronavirus.' Trump in his letter also alleged that they took too long in declaring the outbreak public health emergency of 'international concern.'' "By the time you declared the virus a pandemic on 11 March 2020, it had killed more than 4000 people and infected 100,000 in over 114 countries," read the letter. 

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