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Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization

nytimes.com

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Re: Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization

#2
Could this not have waited a few months? In the middle of an pandemic, to cut off funding to the only organization that is coordinating the global response is just crazy. The pettiness of this administration seems to know no bounds. Even if we accept that WHO screwed up in their early response and yeah they could be critical of China, cutting funding is wildly disproportionate reaction.

China will offcourse make up the difference, and appropriately gain more influence. As it rightly should.

Re: Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization

#3
post #2

Could this not have waited a few months? In the middle of an pandemic, to cut off funding to the only organization that is coordinating the global response is just crazy. The pettiness of this administration seems to know no bounds. Even if we accept that WHO screwed up in their early response and yeah they could be critical of China, cutting funding is wildly disproportionate reaction. China will offcourse make up t…

The WHO arguably made the pandemic worse by discouraging the use of masks, propagating information that turned out to be false and dangerous saying there was no human-to-human interaction and generally sided with china in the informational flow.

Easier to ignore the WHO if you don't give them any money.

Re: Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization

#4
I wish this kind of hard bargaining is postponed till the present crisis is over. A lot of poor people in the world are eager to get back to their normal lives and livelihoods. WHO has been proactive, even though late, in co-ordinating with governments to get serious with their actions.

Re: Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization

#5
post #2

Could this not have waited a few months? In the middle of an pandemic, to cut off funding to the only organization that is coordinating the global response is just crazy. The pettiness of this administration seems to know no bounds. Even if we accept that WHO screwed up in their early response and yeah they could be critical of China, cutting funding is wildly disproportionate reaction. China will offcourse make up t…

The WHO arguably made the pandemic worse by discouraging the use of masks, propagating information that turned out to be false and dangerous saying there was no human-to-human interaction and generally sided with china in the informational flow. Easier to ignore the WHO if you don't give them any money.

As bad as WHO may be, the US Federal government was and is far worse on all the same points.

Swapping in Trump and Kushner for WHO is not an improvement.

Re: Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization

#6
post #2

Could this not have waited a few months? In the middle of an pandemic, to cut off funding to the only organization that is coordinating the global response is just crazy. The pettiness of this administration seems to know no bounds. Even if we accept that WHO screwed up in their early response and yeah they could be critical of China, cutting funding is wildly disproportionate reaction. China will offcourse make up t…

Why do you think that the WHO bears no responsibility for spreading misinformation? Often times they simply repeat CCP propaganda verbatim, arguably worsening the crisis. Then there's the flagrant lies about masks, calling travel bans ineffective then scrambling to change tone, delaying declarations of status, etc etc.

https://twitter.com/who/status/1217043229427761152

The WHO also isn't really doing anything on the ground (besides finger waving countries into giving them billions of dollars).

Their legacy is delay, confusion, misinformation, outright lies and incompetence.

Re: Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization

#7
The WHO is a joke.

What they did these last months should be the last nail in the coffin.

More like a health organization they act like a political one taking sides with China and ignoring/censoring Taiwan even if they managed to control de spread of the virus.[1][2]

And if that wasn't enough, they actively insisted that all the measures we're taking now were pointless.

Why would anyone want a health organization that only cares about politics?

[1] https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/28/taiwan-who-coronavirus-... [2] https://www.thenation.com/article/world/taiwan-who-coronavir...

Re: Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization

#8
post #2

Could this not have waited a few months? In the middle of an pandemic, to cut off funding to the only organization that is coordinating the global response is just crazy. The pettiness of this administration seems to know no bounds. Even if we accept that WHO screwed up in their early response and yeah they could be critical of China, cutting funding is wildly disproportionate reaction. China will offcourse make up t…

WHO is funded by Bill Gates [1].

[1] https://www.politico.eu/article/bill-gates-who-most-powerful...

Re: Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization

#9
post #7

The WHO is a joke. What they did these last months should be the last nail in the coffin. More like a health organization they act like a political one taking sides with China and ignoring/censoring Taiwan even if they managed to control de spread of the virus.[1][2] And if that wasn't enough, they actively insisted that all the measures we're taking now were pointless. Why would anyone want a health organization tha…

I lack a lot of context here, but I recently saw a tweet of theirs from January. It was jarring to see how much they uncritically went along with China’s narrative about the virus. I understand a lot about the situation is unprecedented and especially in early weeks there was a lot of confusion and a lot of unknowns. But hopefully this at least will spur them to act more cautiously in regard to info from China.

Re: Trump Halts U.S. Funding of World Health Organization

#10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The WHO arguably made the pandemic worse by discouraging the use of masks, propagating information that turned out to be false and dangerous saying there was no human-to-human interaction and generally sided with china in the informational flow. Easier to ignore the WHO if you don't give them any money.

As bad as WHO may be, the US Federal government was and is far worse on all the same points. Swapping in Trump and Kushner for WHO is not an improvement.

As far as I was aware the US government issued a travel ban on China while the WHO was still wrongly claiming travel bans are ineffective.

Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/01/30/275959/the-china...

"Tedros, as he is called, said the WHO does not recommend limiting either trade or travel to China at this time. “In fact, we oppose it,” he said. The health organization said it would question border closures, quarantining of airplane passengers who aren’t ill, and similar steps."

This organization is either totally incompetent or complicit with spreading CCP propaganda. In fact, they reacted significantly slower than the US government.

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