Breaking! President Donald Trump cuts funding for WHO over Coronavirus response

The United States president, Donald J. Trump, has cut off funding for the World Health Organisation (WHO) over the latter’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic.

He made the announcement during his daily Coronavirus briefing from the White House.

According to the US president, the WHO “failed in its basic duty“. The president said a review of the organisation will be conducted by the US after which a decision will be made whether or not to resume funding.

Trump said the review would cover the WHO’s “role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of coronavirus.”

According to the BBC, the review will likely take up to 60-90 days.

The US is the biggest funder of the WHO and contributed more than $400m to the world body in 2019.

The US funds $400 million to $500 million to the WHO each year, Trump said during the briefing while noting that China “contributes roughly $40 million.”

Previously, Trump had accused the body of being pro-China and was involved in a cover of the pandemic.

“Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China’s lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death,” the US president says.

Meanwhile, the WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus from Ethiopia says this is “not the time” to cut funds to the WHO.

The WHO was established in 1948 and is based in Geneva, Switzerland, it is the UN agency responsible for global public health and has  194 member states. It depends on contributions from its member countries and charitable organisations and individuals for funding.