United States President Donald Trump wrote a letter to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization.
The letter states that unless the organization makes "major substantive improvements" in the next 30 days, the US will permanently cut off funding and reconsider membership.
- On April 14, Trump announced he was halting US funding to WHO while his administration performed a review of the organization over what he called its "failed response to the COVID-19 outbreak."
- "The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China," Trump wrote in the letter. "My Administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the organization."
- President Donald Trump has written a letter to the World Health Organization's chief that says unless the agency makes "major substantive improvements" in the next month, the US will permanently cut off funding and reconsider membership.
The lengthy letter was addressed to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Trump shared the letter in a tweet Monday. It leveled a series of accusations against the organization and compared Tedros' response with that of his predecessor Gro Harlem Brundtland during the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s.
"In 2003, in response to the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China, Director-General Harlem Brundtland boldly declared the World Health Organization's first emergency travel advisory in 55 years, recommending against travel to and from the disease epicenter in southern China," the letter said.
"She also did not hesitate to criticize China for endangering global health by attempting to cover up the outbreak through its usual playbook of arresting whistleblowers and censoring media," the letter continued. "Many lives could have been saved had you followed Dr. Brundtland's example."
Source: Keystone via Associated Press (AP)
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