Global report: Trump threatens to pull out of WHO over 'failed response' to pandemic

Donald Trump has threatened to cut funding to the World Health Organization permanently and even pull the US out of the global body altogether unless it makes “major substantive improvements” which the president did not explain.

In a four-page letter to the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Trump claimed the organisation had shown an “alarming lack of independence” from China and accused Tedros of presiding over “repeated missteps … that have been extremely costly for the world”. The letter, he said, followed a US investigation into the WHO’s “failed response to the Covid-19 outbreak”.

Trump’s threat came on the day the WHO member states met for the first day of a two-day virtual assembly. Tedros had invited both Trump and Xi Jinping to speak, in the hope of resolving differences between the two leaders on handling the outbreak, but Trump did not take part.

On Tuesday the WHO members states are set to agree to an independent investigation – put forward in a resolution by the EU – into how the coronavirus was handled.

On Monday night, the president published the letter, citing a timeline of the organisation’s alleged failings, which was based on a selective version of the pandemic, highlighting where the WHO had publicised Chinese findings on the nature of the disease, but ignoring or glossing over clear warnings from the organisation about the dangers of the contagion.

The move came hours after the US president told reporters he had been taking hydroxychloroquine for a couple of weeks, despite warnings from his administration that it is dangerous. “I think it’s good, I heard a lot of good stories … I take a pill every day,” he said.

Some claims in Trump’s letter were false, for example that Taiwan had warned about human-to-human transmission of the disease on 31 December. On that date Taiwan sent a letter to the WHO noting the reported spate of unexplained pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, and that the patients were in isolation, and asking for further details.

As the pandemic worsens in the US, and other countries begin a tentative recovery, Trump has sought to blame China and the WHO. He has suspended US funding to the organisation, pointing to the disparity between US and much smaller Chinese contributions and accusing Tedros and his team of being “China-centric”.

“We do not have time to waste,” he wrote. “That is why it is my duty as president of the United States to inform you that if the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of the United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider membership in the organization. I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America’s interests.”

Trump did not make clear what “substantive improvements” the US wanted to see. The US health and human services department has circulated a discussion document with other member states that was largely seen as moderate, calling for the WHO’s powers of inspection to be strengthened, for example. Similar proposals were included in a resolution that appeared to have majority support at Monday’s World Health Assembly.

However, some US officials have suggested more drastic measures, such as making the WHO emergency programme semi-autonomous from the main organisation. That would be seen as unpalatable by many member states.

China hit back on Tuesday, describing the letter as slanderous. “The US leadership’s open letter is … trying to mislead the public … to achieve the goal of smearing and slandering China’s efforts in epidemic prevention and to shift responsibility in its own incompetence in handling the epidemic,” Zhao Lijian, a foreign ministry spokesman, told a regular briefing.

A WHO spokeswoman in Geneva said the agency had no immediate comment but expected to have “more clarity” and a reaction to it later in the day.

The letter is the latest salvo in a war of words between Trump and the WHO that has unfolded in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The US president, who is under pressure at home over his response to the pandemic, temporarily froze funding to the WHO in April, accusing the global body of “severely mismanaging and covering up” the threat. At the time, critics were stunned at the move to cut money from a critical UN agency during a global pandemic.

Before Trump’s letter, Tedros acknowledged there had been shortcomings and told the virtual assembly he welcomed calls for a review. “I will initiate an independent evaluation at the earliest appropriate moment to review experience gained and lessons learned, and to make recommendations to improve national and global pandemic preparedness and response,” he said. “But one thing is abundantly clear. The world must never be the same.”

The letter came as deaths from coronavirus in the US passed 90,000. The US also has the most cases of Covid-19 in the world (1,508,168), followed by Russia and Brazil.

On Monday Brazil jumped into third place – overtaking Britain – after the health ministry announced 13,140 new cases. Russia now has a total of 255,368 cases and 674 new deaths.

Brazil’s economic policy secretary, Adolfo Sachsida, said April, May, June and July would be the worst months of the coronavirus crisis, and from August the economy would be able to pick up again.

Deaths across Latin America have passed 30,000, representing just under 10% of global fatalities

The global economy will take much longer to recover fully from the shock caused by the new coronavirus than initially expected, the head of the International Monetary Fund said, and she stressed the danger of protectionism.

The IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said the fund was likely to revise downward its forecast for a 3% contraction in GDP in 2020, but gave no details. That would likely also trigger changes in the fund’s forecast of a partial recovery of 5.8% in 2021.