Published 19:53 IST, April 17th 2020
Donald Trump slams WHO for ignoring alerts by Taiwan over COVID-19 transmission
Donald Trump slammed WHO on April 17 and called it out for ignoring the alerts sent by Taiwan regarding the human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 disease.
Since criticism had mounted on US President Donald Trump for halting funds for the World Health Organisation amid pandemic, he took on Twitter to slam the UN health agency on April 17 for ignoring the alerts sent by Taiwan regarding the human-to-human transmission of the novel virus in the preliminary stage of the outbreak. Trump also questioned WHO for spreading “misleading, inaccurate” information about the coronavirus in January, February since it was discovered in Chian in December 2019. The US President also held WHO accountable for the delay in taking decisive action.
Trump stops WHO funding
US had previously threatened the United Nations health agency to stop funding and accused the latter of being “China-centric”. However, Trump officially announced on April 14 (local time) that the country will halt funds to WHO and the American authorities will review the “mismanaging” of COVID-19 outbreak. While China urged the US to fulfil its obligations especially during the pandemic, Trump has said that “WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held accountable”.
According to international media reports, Trump claimed that US used to fund at least $400 - $500 million to the World Health Organisation, every year, whereas China roughly funded $40 million. Moreover, the US President also believes that the outbreak would have been contained in the early stages if WHO had urged China to be more transparent and sent medical experts to the mainland for assessment of the situation.
Earlier, Taiwan had accused the WHO of not communicating an early caution about human-to-human transmission and slowing the drastic spread of the pandemic. According to reports, the Taiwanese doctors had learned from their colleagues in mainland China where the fatal virus was originated in December 2019 that the medical staff were falling ill from then-unnamed Coronavirus. It was the signal that the COVID-19 was being passed among humans and the WHO was made aware of the same on December 31. However, it was not communicated to other countries who later struggled to stem the spread of Coronavirus.
Updated 19:43 IST, April 17th 2020