Re:Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization
by netsharc on Wednesday April 15, 2020 @04:27AM
(#22875665)
Imagine if the virus came along during the Hillary administration. The not-dismantled pandemic team [1] catches wind of the problems in Wuhan as early as the beginning of January, and informs the President as well as the WHO. The still-functioning State Department asks around in China and brings good information. As the WHO encounters resistance in China [2], the secretary of state makes phone calls and manages to negotiate permission for them to do their work there (who knows, maybe in reality Pompeo did this, but their track record makes me doubt that).
In this universe though, the Trump admin didn't contribute anything to the WHO (I'm assuming), and is now bitching and moaning that they were ineffective...
> Announcing the cut in funding on Tuesday, Trump accused the WHO of failing to send its experts to the source of the outbreak to gather samples. That failure decisively set back the effect to contain the pandemic, he claimed.
> In fact Beijing blocked a WHO delegation from visiting Wuhan in the first weeks of the outbreak. The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had to fly to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping on 29 January to negotiate entry and information sharing. A WHO team was allowed to visit Wuhan on 22 February.
In this universe though, the Trump admin didn't contribute anything to the WHO (I'm assuming), and is now bitching and moaning that they were ineffective...
[1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/ [2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/15/trump-turns-...:
> Announcing the cut in funding on Tuesday, Trump accused the WHO of failing to send its experts to the source of the outbreak to gather samples. That failure decisively set back the effect to contain the pandemic, he claimed.
> In fact Beijing blocked a WHO delegation from visiting Wuhan in the first weeks of the outbreak. The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had to fly to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping on 29 January to negotiate entry and information sharing. A WHO team was allowed to visit Wuhan on 22 February.