A top official of the World Health Organization or WHO hopes US will rethink its decision to leave the United Nations organization.
“The problem is not about the money. It’s not the financing that’s the issue. It’s actually the relationship with the U.S. that’s more important and its leadership abroad,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt hosted by the Aspen Security Forum.
The Trump administration expressed its intent to withdraw from WHO by July 6, 2021. President Donald Trump stressed what he described as WHO’s misuse of funding and its affairs with China as main reasons behind his decision to leave the organization.
“If there are issues with the WHO or the U.N. system at large, you know, we’re very open for any evaluation or assessment, and the truth can be known,” Tedros said. “This can be done from inside without leaving the organization.”
However, Tedros said that US officials are still working with WHO in its response to the coronavirus pandemic and have been “participating actively.”
“We still have communication, we’re working together, and we appreciate that, but I hope the relationship will return to normal,” Tedros said.
The issues between the US and the WHO have intensified in recent months over the organization’s relationship with China, where the coronavirus reportedly started late last year. According to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, China “co-opted” the WHO. Tedros denied the accusation, saying the statements were false and a distraction from the Covid-19 pandemic response.
The US remains the biggest funder of the WHO and most of the funds support the agency’s emergencies program, which aids the world’s most vulnerable populations, WHO officials said. They believe that the absence of support from the US could cost lives.
Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, lauded the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calling it “one of the greatest scientific institutions on this planet.”
Trump has previously slammed CDC guidelines on school reopening, calling it too tough and expensive. Some former CDC directors criticized the government for disregarding advice from public health officials in its pandemic response.
“I don’t know if Americans realize just how important CDC is not just to Americans, but to every citizen on this planet,” Ryan said during the interview. “The politics of these things will never shake the bonds that scientists have around the world and the urge, the desire, to work together to save lives.”
Reforms
“We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engage with them directly, but they have refused to act because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms,” Trump said before in a speech in the White House Rose Garden.
“It was never about reforming the WHO. That was all lies,” the Democratic senator Chris Murphy, said on Twitter. “It was always about distraction and scapegoating. Leaving castrates our ability to stop future pandemics and elevates China as the world’s go-to power on global health. What a nightmare.”
Amanda Glassman, the executive-vice president of the Centre for Global Development, said that the US had broad ties to the WHO. She noted that the move of the US could affect its influence on global health research and policymaking.
“We have very deep and long relationships with the WHO as the space where we coordinate global health policy,” Glassman said. “I think it’s totally inefficient to do it in a bilateral manner.”
