Backlash against Trump exiting WHO

[ce_corona data_table=false]

by Celine Le Prioux with Daniel Lawler in Paris and AFP bureaus

US President Donald Trump faced a broad backlash on Saturday over severing ties with the UN’s health agency during a pandemic, as coronavirus cases worldwide topped 6 million and infections surged in Latin America.

The EU urged Washington to reconsider its decision to permanently cut funding to the World Health Organization over its handling of the pandemic, which has killed more than 366,000 people and devastated the global economy.

On Saturday, confirmed novel coronavirus cases worldwide surged past six million, according to an AFP tally.

“Now is the time for enhanced cooperation and common solutions,” the European Union said in a statement, adding: “Actions that weaken international results must be avoided.”

Trump initially suspended funding to the WHO last month, accusing it of not doing enough to curb the early spread of the virus and being too lenient with China, where COVID-19 emerged late last year.

On Friday he moved to make that decision permanent in a major blow to the agency. The US is WHO’s biggest contributor, supplying $400 million last year.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn said the “disappointing” decision was a setback for global health, while Chancellor Angela Merkel declined to attend an in-person G7 summit that Trump had suggested he would host.

Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet medical journal, said it was “madness and terrifying both at the same time”.

“The US government has gone rogue at a time of humanitarian emergency”.

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University and a WHO collaborator, questioned Trump’s ability to withdraw from the agency without congressional approval, saying the threat was “unlawful, reckless and dangerous”. (AFP)