Announcement

**Treyfish** · April 14, 2020, 05:29 PM

***** announces U.S. will halt funding for WHO over coronavirus response

Alayna Treene, Jonathan Swan
President ***** announced Tuesday that the U.S. is placing a hold on funding to the World Health Organization over its handing of the coronavirus pandemic, pending a review.

Driving the news: ***** accused the WHO of "severely mismanaging and covering up" the coronavirus crisis, ....

Behind the scenes: ***** has been fuming for days about what he sees as the WHO's botched response to the pandemic and its deference to China.

"The WHO really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look," ***** tweeted last week.
*****'s national security team has rallied behind him, believing that the U.S. needed to.....

The backdrop: Over the past week, officials within the White House's Office of Management and Budget have been working on a menu of options for ;;....

The most likely route — and the one ***** took — is to reprogram U.S. funds that were allocated for the WHO, moving the money to other international organizations that can administer them for comparable purposes, officials said.... https://www.axios.com/*****-world-he...8aa4cb905.html

**Treyfish** · April 14, 2020, 05:32 PM

Coronavirus: US senators demand WHO records, saying health agency helped China ‘cover up’ threat

Seven Republican lawmakers ask for World Health Organisation’s communication with Chinese authorities between October 1 and March 12
WHO leadership has pushed back against suggestions that the agency acted slowly or played down the threat at Beijing’s behest

Owen Churchill
Published: 6:14am, 15 Apr, 2020
A group of US senators has written to the World Health Organisation (WHO) demanding it hand over internal records and communications regarding the coronavirus outbreak, the latest in a growing chorus of accusations from Republican lawmakers that the agency is beholden to Beijing.

In a letter sent to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday, senators led by Florida’s Rick Scott and Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson charged the WHO with helping Beijing “cover up” the threat of the novel coronavirus, and called into question Congress’ continued funding of the United Nations health agency.

Demanding answers on behalf of “American taxpayers”, the letter requested that Tedros provide all of the WHO leadership’s “electronic records, emails, hard drives and text messages” between October 1 and March 12, along with all data received from and sent to Chinese authorities regarding the coronavirus....

https://www.scmp.com/print/news/chin...-saying-health

**Treyfish** · April 14, 2020, 05:32 PM

Coronavirus: US Ambassador to NZ Scott Brown unleashes on China for lack of transparency

7 minutes ago
Jamie Ensor

The United States' Ambassador to New Zealand has unleashed on China's initial response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, saying it limited how quickly other countries could respond.

The World Health Organization (WHO) was first notified of a cluster of pneumonia cases detected in Wuhan, China with an unknown cause. Over the next week, Chinese officials identified the cause as a new type of coronavirus, SARS-Cov-2, which had spread via a seafood market in the city. However, another possible case, who didn't visit the market, has since been identified.

Nearly 2 million people have now contracted the virus responsible for the COVID-19 illness and 125,000 people have died, with a large portion (609,614) of those cases being recorded in the United States.....
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world...nsparency.html

**Treyfish** · April 14, 2020, 05:34 PM

Trump halts funding of World Health Organization, demands ‘full accountability’ over Covid-19 pandemic

14 Apr, 2020 22:22 / Updated 2 minutes ago
...Today I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the … organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,”Trump said at a White House briefing on Tuesday, adding that the US has a “duty to insist on full accountability” from the public health body...

https://www.rt.com/news/485825-*****...ding-covid-19/

**Treyfish** · April 14, 2020, 05:38 PM

Fauci points to China for late realization coronavirus was his 'worst nightmare'

by Jerry Dunleavy
| April 14, 2020 03:05 PM

Dr. Anthony Fauci indicated China's refusal to be completely open about the COVID-19 outbreak was the reason why he did not immediately realize its severity.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a White House coronavirus task force briefing on Monday that, early on, “the information wasn’t as forthcoming as I would’ve liked.”

He added: “I’m not perfect, and maybe — I wouldn’t say made mistakes — but maybe I should’ve really tried to delve into that a little more about what was going on."

He appeared to be referring to China’s well-documented efforts to cover up the spread of the coronavirus. He has previously blamed China by name for spreading misinformation. China muzzled whistleblowers, misled the World Health Organization, and attempted to block outside health experts.
“This was a virus that was much worse than what I had thought it was going to be based on what we had learned early on, when it was first thought to be something that just jumped from an animal to a human and didn’t really have much capability of going human-to-human,” Fauci said. “And then, all of a sudden, you find out that, not only was it not just animal-to-human — that’s probably the way it started — but the....“It was just an evolving thing that we finally realized and went, whoa, this is really worse than we could’ve imagined," he said......

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...orst-nightmare

**Treyfish** · April 14, 2020, 05:43 PM

....It was not immediately clear if the order will cover all or part of U.S. government funding of the organization. The U.S. contributes over $400 million to the WHO every year, or 15 percent of the agency’s annual budget. (China funds 0.2 percent of the WHO’s budget.)
Trump further assailed the agency’s criticism of travel restrictions on the president instituted in January on travelers who had passed through China.

“The WHO’s attack on travel restrictions put political correctness above life-saving measures,” Trump said... https://www.nationalreview.com/news/...ending-review/

**sharon sanders** · April 14, 2020, 07:52 PM

posted with permission

hat tip to Jason Gale

***** Halts U.S. Payments to WHO, Saying It Failed to Share Data
2020-04-14 23:18:44.181 GMT

By Jordan Fabian
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald ***** said he instructed
his administration to temporarily halt funding to the World
Health Organization for taking China’s claims about the
coronavirus “at face value” and failing to share information
about the pandemic as it spread.
“The WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held
accountable,” ***** said Tuesday at a White House press
conference. “The outbreak could have been contained at its
source” if the organization had correctly responded early on, he
added.
It’s unclear when any halt in payments would take effect or
how much authority ***** has to suspend disbursements, which are
authorized by Congress. The U.S. has contributed about $893
million to the WHO’s operations during its current two-year
funding cycle, according to the organization.
The move to limit support to the WHO in the midst of a
global pandemic is unprecedented. Yet as domestic criticism of
the ***** administration’s response has increased and the U.S.
became the epicenter of the outbreak, many of the president’s
supporters have pointed to the WHO for making early mistakes
they say have undermined the U.S. and worsened the crisis.
***** on Tuesday pointed to a WHO statement in late January
opposing travel bans as a response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The president instituted travel restrictions on China in late
January, later extending it to the European Union and U.K.
“One of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the
WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions
from China and other nations,” ***** said. “Had other nations
likewise suspended travel from China, countless more lives would
have been saved.”
The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has been
singled out for blame among some of the president’s critics.
Tedros has pushed back, saying now is not the time to politicize
the pandemic.
One person who reached out to ***** to try to get him to
hold off on suspending payments to the WHO was United Nations
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Guterres, through the U.S.
envoy to the UN, acknowledged WHO missteps in the pandemic, but
argued that now is not the time to be pointing fingers.
Some aides to the president have argued that cuts to the
WHO now could be counterproductive because it is one of the few
agencies with access to some of the world’s most vulnerable
populations in Yemen, Libya and Syria, which could all be hit
hard by the virus, according to one person.
The president has sought in the past to cut U.S.
contributions to the World Health Organization, even before the
virus outbreak. In its proposed 2021 budget, the administration
called for reducing voluntary contributions to the WHO by more
than half, to about $58 million.
While ***** criticized WHO reliance on Chinese information
in the early day of the crisis, the president repeatedly praised
China and its president, Xi Jinping, for its handling of the
coronavirus outbreak in January and February. But he said Friday
that the WHO is “very, very China-centric. China always seems to
get the better of the argument, and I don’t like that.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net
Bill Faries, Joshua Gallu

**sharon sanders** · April 14, 2020, 08:17 PM

The internet is going wild with this. Lots of yelling and screaming that I am seeing. Not a comment. Just an observation.

**sharon sanders** · April 14, 2020, 08:35 PM

As I am thinking about it, a compromise would be to directly fund the affiliated regional organizations:

African Region AFRO
Region of the Americas PAHO
South-East Asia Region SEARO
European Region EURO
Eastern Mediterranean Region EMRO
Western Pacific Region WPRO

**tetano** · April 15, 2020, 01:42 AM

Please president Trump, look homeward. None in this crisis is without blame

**sharon sanders** · April 15, 2020, 11:17 AM

WHO news conference notes. As usual I report straight facts. None of this is my opinion or do I endorse anything contained herein.

Tedros giving WHO history.....

Health is right of every human being - remains vision today

US has been a longstanding and generous friend of WHO

Disappointed in funding hold by US

WHO helps most vulnerable people and many disease besides COVID-19

Works with countries to improve health systems

Looking at budget with US hold and working to fill gap

Work with all countries - rich and poor

Time for all of us to be united.

In due course WHO will be reviewed by usual process,

Now focus is on stopping virus and saving lives.

WHO is thankful for all support.

Getting on with the job. Learning what works and sharing with the world. 5 million enrollment in online classes.

Launched a new course on how to put on and remove PPE. Work with many experts and others.

Working with vaccine partners.

Also working on therapies and drugs - especially to vulnerable (low resource) countries.

A flight went to Africa yesterday to deliver supplies.

One World concert to raise money for WHO's Solidarity fund.

Will work with every country and every partner. With a relentless committment to solutions.

Been fighting pandemic with every ounce of spirit. Commitment to the whole world.

Question period:

How much $ does the US provide? Looking at how programs will be affected. Looking to fill gaps in funding.

115 million shortfall? Get from where? Doing assessment and then announce officially.

WHO choosing politics over health? Isolating Taiwan? Multiple reports on Dec 31. Wuhan health authority itself made a report. WHO moved to verify the reports. Member states decide on politics and they set the policy of the organization. WHO is part of the UN. They recognized China as the only rep of China (i.e. not Taiwan separately). So WHO follows this set-up. WHO is for the health of all world. Work with and for all people everywhere. Taiwan has a separate formal point of contact with WHO. Taiwan has regular contact with WHO through experts. WHO has had direct contact with experts in "Taipei". Giving now a list of direct contact between WHO and Taiwan in the past. WHO always wants to know what is going on from frontline workers.

Are you going discuss the budget plans with Russia and other countries? In the coming weeks and months committees will be discussing the budget.

What about mental health in this pandemic? Lockdowns in their own right are not effective. But in a rapid build up of cases it can suppress some cases. Those measures need to be replaced with quarantines, contact tracing etc. Refers to lockdowns as "draconian". Using physically distancing instead of social distancing. Keep physically active. Laugh. Listen to music. Play with kids.

Testing question..bad transmission..? Flu surveillance systems can be used for COVID-19...ILI is one...can keep a sentinel watch. Pakistan has challenges in delivering a public health intervention. Slums in Karachi make social distancing difficult. There are health leaders in Pakistan and can lead country.

A question about Azerbaijan: Cases are 1,148 and 12 deaths. 80% increase this week. Stable but on upward side. Country needs to be focused on contact tracing, etc. If right measures are applied can be on a safe trajectory. Regional cooperation is Turkish speaking countries is very important. All regional cooperation is very important. Can lead to global solidarity.

Serology testing question. Reliable? What has been seen to date? Looking at this. Large number of rapid tests available for purchase. Number of countries doing some studies. Working on epidemiological studies. Looking at various assays to find one to recommend. Looking at putting together a serum panel. Ongoing. Seeing some published data. 3.5-14% seroprevalence - appears to be lower than expectation.

A question about January and US accusations - Did multiple briefings...emerging situation...difficult to pick out respiratory illness...difficult to determine human-to-human spread in community settings...flight restrictions? imposing these is a right of any country....ask each country for public health justifications...January 14th media conference...WHO laid out what they needed to know...what is pathogen? source? animal? disease it causes? mode of transmission?

A question about how to help the WHO. Also, a question about heat and global warming. A lengthy answer about how many entities they are working with. An extensive list. A combined effort to defeat disease. Listing some diseases that are related to weather and crowding too. Don't know weather connections to this disease yet.

The conference is over.

**JimO** · April 15, 2020, 11:50 AM

Just curious, why is the President's name redacted from the posts?

**Treyfish** · April 15, 2020, 04:35 PM

Birx Faults WHO and China for Delayed Coronavirus Response

Bradley Cortright
April 15, 2020
Members of the White House coronavirus taskforce are blaming China and the World Health Organization (WHO) for a delayed response to the coronavirus outbreak.

“You really have to go back and ask yourself, ‘Why wasn’t there this level of transparency when this virus exploded?’ Dr. Deborah Birx said during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” On Wednesday.

She added, “I think people would have prepared differently if they had known the level of transmissibility of this virus.”
Watch the video below:
...

https://ijr.com/birx-faults-who-chin...irus-response/

**Pathfinder** · April 23, 2020, 01:41 PM

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo at a Press Availability
REMARKS TO THE PRESS

MICHAEL R. POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE

PRESS BRIEFING ROOM

WASHINGTON, D.C.

APRIL 22, 2020

SECRETARY POMPEO:
...

Turning to the World Health Organization, I want to spend a few minutes telling the American people a little bit more about the problems that we’re trying to work our way through.

The WHO has two primary functions. First, it’s a regulator and an advisory role, and a health emergency and humanitarian aid operation on top of that.

After the first SARS outbreak in 2003, the United States led the reform of the WHO, the WHO rules that govern how countries report on public health threats. So a major reform effort at 2003.

Those rules – they’re called the International Health Regulations – went into effect in 2007.

We set very clear expectations. We – the world – set very clear expectations for how every country must disclose data to protect global health.

For example, Article 6 of the IHR says that “each State Party shall notify the World Health Organization…within 24 hours…of all events which may constitute a public health emergency of international concern within its territory…”

Annex 2 of those same rules provides that countries must notify the World Health Organization of any unusual or unexpected public health events such as SARS, a close genetic cousin of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Those rules also said how countries should evaluate when to notify the WHO of diseases of unknown causes or sources.

We strongly believe that the Chinese Communist Party did not report the outbreak of the new coronavirus in a timely fashion to the World Health Organization.

Article 6 of the IHRs, which was a part of this reform, further mandates that a State Party – that would include China – “shall continue to communicate to WHO timely, accurate and sufficiently detailed public health information…” That is, there’s an ongoing obligation.

Even after the CCP did notify the WHO of the coronavirus outbreak, China didn’t share all of the information it had.

Instead, it covered up how dangerous the disease is. It didn’t report sustained human-to-human transmission for a month until it was in every province inside of China. It censored those who tried to warn the world, it ordered a halt to testing of new samples, and it destroyed existing samples.

The CCP still has not shared the virus sample from inside of China with the outside world, making it impossible to track the disease’s evolution.

Not making a legal determination here today on China’s adherence to the IHRs, but the World Health Organization’s regulatory arm clearly failed during this pandemic.

I’d also note that when countries adopted these new rules in 2007, we also gave the director-general of the WHO encouragement and the ability to go public when a member-country wasn’t following those rules, and that didn’t happen in this case either.

It’s why we continue to insist this is an ongoing requirement for transparency and openness according to the WHO rules, and the WHO has responsibility to continue to enforce them today. This transparency and getting it right is critical to saving lives today and in the future.

I’ll talk for just a minute about humanitarian aid. The United States is the most generous nation on the planet, has been for the past three years, will continue to be this year.

Thanks to the American taxpayers, we’ve dedicated more than $140 billion in global funding for global health purposes in the past two decades.

Today I can confirm the United States is making an additional commitment of about 270 million to assist the most at-risk countries in fighting the virus, bringing our total to more than $775 million to date.

We do this in lots of ways. We do this through multilateral organizations. We help our partners by sharing expertise. Today the CDC has officers stationed in 59 countries and has helped train thousands of epidemiologists worldwide over the years whose knowledge is providing incredibly valuable.

You should know it helps those countries, it saves lives in those countries, but this is a global pandemic and that work protects us right here at home in America as well.

Weeks before the first reported COVID case arrived in Guatemala, USAID helped the Ministry of Health there equip a key hospital to start caring for its first patients.

And the United States is training more than 70,000 pharmacists across Indonesia today so they can provide good advice and referrals.

American generosity isn’t limited to our assistance that comes directly from the United States Government. Our businesses, our NGOs, charities, all faith groups – this is an all-of-America approach to saving lives all across the world and protecting us right here at home as well.

We estimate that the American people, in cume, have given nearly $3 billion in donations and assistance just to fight this particular virus.

America’s global health commitments remain as steady as ever.

...

https://www.state.gov/secretary-mich...-availability/

Announcement

U.S. cuts funding to the WHO

U.S. cuts funding to the WHO

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