WHO members distance themselves from Trump, but agree to review coronavirus response

(Image credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

published 20 May 2020

After President Trump made public a letter he sent to World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, which accused the agency of protecting China and threatened to cut off U.S. funding for the duration of his administration, the other WHO member nations pushed back. Now is "the time for solidarity, not the time for finger pointing," a spokeswoman for the European Commission said.

On Monday night, Trump tweeted his letter, which said if the WHO does not "commit major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership to the organization." Trump also stated that his administration conducted a review and found the WHO made "claims about the coronavirus that were either grossly inaccurate or misleading."

During the WHO's annual meeting in Geneva on Tuesday, representatives of the other member nations agreed to conduct an "impartial, independent" and "comprehensive evaluation" of the organization that would review the "experience gained and lessons learned from the WHO-coordinated international health response to COVID-19." Members were vocal about their support of the organization. Valentina Matviyenko, a member of the Russian parliament, said Moscow stands behind the WHO, as there is "certainly no reason to perform a mock trial or any kinds of investigations" or to "destroy the useful things that have been accumulated for decades by mankind."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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