The Office of Management and Budget is working on a plan to cut U.S. funding of the controversial World Health Organization, unnamed Trump administration officials said on Thursday.
This comes after President Donald Trump addressed the misinformation coming from the organization, which is part of the United Nations, about the genesis and spread of the coronavirus in China and then around the globe.
“What the WHO knew and how it reacted to that knowledge is relevant to the U.S. government’s response to the crisis,” a senior administration official said in an NBC report.
“World Health got it wrong. I mean, they got it very wrong. In many ways, they were wrong,” Trump said on Wednesday at the daily coronavirus press briefing at the White House. “They also minimized the threat very strongly and not good.”
NBC, which editorialized in its reporting that Trump “tries to deflect blame for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic,” said Trump, not the WHO, is acting questionably:
Trump’s focus on the WHO comes as he continues to face questions about his early statements playing down the virus and how unprepared his administration has been. The president’s embrace of a broadside against the WHO echoes similar criticism from hosts on Fox News Channel, including Tucker Carlson, and some Republican lawmakers.
NBC reported that WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “politicizing” the coronavirus is wrong and quoted a source who supports the organization.
“This is our premier public health agency in the world, and it is important that it be supported,” Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said Wednesday on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports.
“The U.S. is the largest funder of the WHO, contributing $14.7 million for the international group’s coronavirus fund. But Trump recently proposed cutting the U.S. contribution,” NBC reported.
“There is a lot in the WHO that does not jibe with the president’s agenda,” a senior administration official said.
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