Donald Trump late Monday threatened to permanently stop funding of the World Health Organization and reconsider membership of the United States in the body.
The president shared a four page letter written to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to Twitter, saying the organization needs to make ‘major substantive improvements within the next 30 days’ for US funding to continue.
He wrote: ‘If the WHO does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the WHO permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization.’
The threat came on the same day the WHO bowed to calls from most of its member states to launch an independent probe into how it managed the international response to the coronavirus. Chinese President Xi Jinping also announced China would provide $2 billion to help respond to the outbreak and its economic fallout.
Xi said China supports the idea of a comprehensive review of the global response to COVID-19 and that it should be ‘based on science and professionalism led by WHO, and conducted in an objective and impartial manner’.
Despite Xi’s words, China has slapped an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley in what is widely seen as retaliation for Australia’s investigation demands.
The move has sparked fears of a trade war which could embroil Britain, which has also backed calls for an inquiry.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot characterized China’s newly announced contribution as ‘a token to distract from calls from a growing number of nations demanding accountability for the Chinese government’s failure to meet its obligations.’
Scroll down to read the letter in full
Donald Trump, pictured, late Monday threatened to permanently stop funding of the World Health Organization and reconsider membership of the United States in the body
The president shared a four page letter written to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, pictured, to Twitter, saying the organization needs to make ‘major substantive improvements within the next 30 days’ for US funding to continue
The president shared his four page latter on Twitter late on Monday evening
Trump suspended U.S. contributions to the WHO last month, accusing it of promoting China’s ‘disinformation’ about the coronavirus outbreak, although WHO officials denied the accusation and China said it was transparent and open.
The president has repeatedly attacked WHO, claiming that it helped China conceal the extent of the coronavirus pandemic in its early stages. The US death toll from COVID-19 topped 90,000 Monday with more than 1.5 million cases.
Sharing the letter which raised more than a dozen grievances with the WHO, Trump tweeted: ‘This is the letter sent to Dr. Tedros of the World Health Organization. It is self-explanatory!’
Calling the WHO’s ‘political gamesmanship deadly’, Trump added that their ‘repeated missteps’ have been ‘extremely costly for the world’.
‘The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China…I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving American’s interests,’ the letter concluded.
He said a review ‘confirmed many of the serious concerns I raised last month’.
Earlier, Trump said the WHO had ‘done a very sad job’ in its handling of the virus and he would make a decision soon on U.S. funding.
In his letter Trump said the only way forward for the body was if it could demonstrate independence from China, adding that his administration had already started reform discussions with Tedros.
Donald Trump threatens to permanently pull WHO funding in this excoriating four page letter
On Monday, the WHO said an independent review of the global virus response would begin as soon as possible and it received backing and a hefty pledge of funds from China, in the spotlight as the origin of the pandemic.
Tedros said he would launch an independent evaluation of WHO’s response ‘at the earliest appropriate moment’ — alluding to findings published Monday in a first report by an oversight advisory body commissioned to look into WHO’s response.
The 11-page report raised questions such as whether WHO’s warning system for alerting the world to outbreaks is adequate, and suggested member states might need to ‘reassess’ WHO’s role in providing travel advice to countries.
Trump said on Saturday his administration was considering numerous proposals about the World Health Organization, including one in which Washington would pay about 10 per cent of its former level.
In a posting on Twitter, Trump underscored that no final decision had been made and that US funding for the global health agency remained frozen.
World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, shake hands in Beijing on January 28, 2020
The World Health Organization (WHO) World health assembly. China said it supports the idea of a comprehensive review of the global response to COVID-19 and that it should be ‘based on science and professionalism led by WHO, and conducted in an objective and impartial manner’
Previously, the U.S. sent about $400 million a year to the WHO, which is ten times the amount China contributes. The United States was the WHO’s biggest donor.
Questions remain about the relationship between China and the WHO.
It was earlier reported that the CIA believes China bullied the WHO into delaying the declaration of a global health emergency in January, even as Beijing hoarded medical equipment.
It is the second Western intelligence report to indicate that China strong-armed the WHO into downplaying the risks of the epidemic, after a German intelligence document reported by Der Spiegel suggested that Chinese leader Xi Jinping personally pressured WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, the WHO denied that it had bowed to any outside pressure in the early stages of the pandemic.
Tedros emphasized that WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a global health emergency on January 30, its highest level of alert, at a time when there were fewer than 100 cases outside of China.
Trump suspended U.S. contributions to the WHO last month, accusing it of promoting China’s ‘disinformation’ about the coronavirus outbreak, although WHO officials denied the accusation and China said it was transparent and open.
Animal markets, which remain popular across much of Asia, have been in the spotlight since January when Chinese officials said COVID-19 most likely jumped from animals to humans at the Huanan market in Wuhan
In the following weeks, WHO warned countries there was a narrowing ‘window of opportunity’ to prevent the virus from spreading globally.
During the first few months of the outbreak, WHO officials repeatedly described the virus’s spread as ‘limited’ and said it wasn’t as transmissible as flu; experts have since said COVID-19 spreads even faster.
It declared the outbreak to be a pandemic on March 11, after the virus had killed thousands globally and sparked large epidemics in South Korea, Italy, Iran and elsewhere.
China says it is willing to back the WHO’s investigation, but Beijing’s move to slap tariffs on Australian exports are widely seen as retribution for Australia’s efforts in rallying global support for an inquiry.
The 80 per cent tariff has sparked fears of a global trade war – after China earlier threatened a boycott of Australian goods and services.
Beijing claims the tariff is linked to a breach of WTO rules and not related to coronavirus, but Australia says there is no evidence of this.
The 73.6 per cent anti-dumping tax and 6.9 per cent bonus tax are a far higher level than Chinese industry had requested, bolstering suspicions of a political motivation.
China’s ambassador in Canberra has previously hinted at a boycott of Australian products such as beef and wine.
Australia’s trade minister said today that his country does not want a trade war with China, but there are fears that Britain and others will be dragged into the row.
‘Australia is not interested in a trade war. We don’t pursue our trade policies on a tit-for-tat basis,’ Simon Birmingham told reporters.
Chinese President Xi Jinping defended his country’s response to the crisis, saying China had acted ‘with openness and transparency’
The UK has also supported the call for an inquiry and said that China faces ‘hard questions’ about the source of the coronavirus pandemic, adding there would have to be a ‘deep dive’ into the facts around the outbreak.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has said that things will not go back to ‘business as usual’ between the UK and China after the pandemic eases.
A Foreign Office spokesman said yesterday: ‘There will need to be a review into the pandemic, not least so that we can ensure we are better prepared for future global pandemics.
‘The resolution at the World Health Assembly is an important step towards this.’
Over 80 per cent of people in the UK want Beijing to face a global inquiry into what happened, according to a poll commissioned by the Henry Jackson Society think tank.
Meanwhile, seven in ten people believe ministers should try to take legal action against the Chinese government if it is found to have broken international law in relation to its outbreak response.
At the end of last month, the government stopped publishing China’s coronavirus death figures alongside its own, in a nod to claims that Beijing was covering up the true extent of the outbreak in the country.
However, China hit back at the UK last week, with Beijing’s state-controlled Global Times claiming that Britain would need a ‘miracle’ to get out of the health crisis as it condemned London’s response to COVID-19 as ‘flippant’ and ‘ill-prepared’.
Nancy Pelosi snipes ‘morbidly obese’ Trump shouldn’t be taking hydroxychloroquine to PREVENT Covid-19 after president revealed he asked WH physician for it and doctors advise against treatment
Nancy Pelosi on Monday said ‘morbidly obese’ Donald Trump should not take hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19.
The president, 73, said he started taking the controversial medication ‘a couple of weeks ago’, despite warnings from his own administration about the side effects of the anti-malaria drug.
Following the admission House Speaker Pelosi told CNN: ‘He’s our president and I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists.
‘Especially in his age group and in his, shall we say, weight group, what is morbidly obese, they say. So, I think that it’s not a good idea.’
Her warning came after Trump’s 2019 physical revealed he had a BMI of of 30.4. That’s obese, according to the CDC, but not ‘severely’.
Pelosi pointed out Trump’s weight and age – in what Twitter users saw as a dig at the president – as doctors around the nation expressed concern at the revelations.
That’s despite Dr. Sean Conley, the White House physician, saying in an official memo he and Trump discussed the matter and believed the gain from using hydroxychloroquine outweighed its risk factors.
But the medic did not specifically say he had prescribed the drug to Trump in the note.
Nancy Pelosi told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday that ‘morbidly obese’ Donald Trump should not take hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19
President Donald Trump said he’s been taking hydroxychloroquine for around two weeks
“I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group, and in his, shall we say, weight group: ‘Morbidly obese,’ they say,” says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Pres. Trump’s revelation he is taking hydroxychloroquine. pic.twitter.com/0ImjpEjg9q
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) May 19, 2020
The president said he does not have the virus, which has infected 1.53 million Americans and killed more than 90,000.
But speaking at the White House during an event with restaurant workers he said: ‘I’m taking it – hydroxychloroquine. Right now yeah. A couple of weeks ago, started taking it.’
The Food and Drug Administration warned in April that hydroxychloroquine can significantly increase the risk of death in people, especially those with heart problems, and cautioned against its use.
The president repeatedly has touted hydroxychloroquine – used to treat malaria, lupus and other diseases – and the antibiotic azithromycin, often referred to as ‘Z-pack,’ to be used to treat the coronavirus.
Trump said he took one dose of the z-pack antibiotic and is now taking a zinc supplement along with a daily hydroxychloroquine pill. He noted he’s had no side effects.
‘I’m taking the two – the zinc and the hydroxy,’ he said. ‘So far I seem to be okay.’
‘I have been taking it for about a weekend for about a week and a half,’ he noted. ‘Every day. I take a pill every day.’
‘At some point I’ll stop,’ he added.
White House physician, Dr Conley noted: ‘After numerous discussions, he and I regarding the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from the treatment outweighed the relative risk.’
‘In consultation with our inter-agency partners and subject matter experts around the country, I continue to monitor the myriad studies investigating COVID-19 therapies and I anticipate employing the same shared medical decision making based on the evidence at hand in the future,’ he said.
Conley, a commander in the U.S. Navy, noted President Trump is ‘in very good health and has remained symptom-free. He receives regular COVID-19 testing, all negative to date.’
Trump said he started taking the drug after talking with Conley. ‘He said well if you’d like it. I said yeah I’d like it, I’d like to take it,’ Trump said.
Medics around the nation have expressed concern at the news, warning Americans to not take the drug without at least consulting their doctor
But medics around the nation have expressed concern at the news, warning Americans to not take the drug without at least consulting their doctor.
Dr. William Schaffner told The Washington Post: ‘I certainly would not recommend that people in the U.S. ask their physicians to prescribe hydroxychloroquine for the prevention of Covid. Its use is entirely speculative.’
Former Planned Parenthood President Dr. Leana Wen tweeted: ‘There is NO evidence for hydrochloroquine being effective in treatment of #covid19 or prophylaxis to prevent the disease.
‘This is a medication that has serious side effects. I am very concerned about @realDonaldTrump continuing to model behavior that could harm many Americans.’
And Dr. Rob Davidson, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare, said: Today @realDonaldTrump announced that’s he’s taking Hydroxychloroquine to prevent #COVID19. This is dangerous. Ignore him. There is no evidence of benefit and there is evidence of harm.
‘Trump is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands. Let’s not add to that number.
Hydroxychloroquine has potentially serious side effects, including to the heart