Trump World Health Funding Cut 'Makes No Sense' - Global Peace Activist

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2020) President Donald Trump's decision to deprive the World Health Organization (WHO) of its $500 million a year funding from the United States makes no sense regardless of the body's failure to issue adequate warnings over the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, global peace activist Dr. Helen Caldicott told Sputnik.

"Well, just because they made a mistake doesn't mean that they should be seriously deprived of funding in the face of a serious global pandemic - it makes absolutely no sense," Caldicott, founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility said.

Trump told reporters Tuesday he was pulling funding for the WHO while his administration conducted an investigation of the Geneva-based UN agency, claiming it had impeded the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Because the United States has supplied the major funding for WHO, it could then have moved swiftly to work with it after it was apparent that it had made an initial mistake," she said.

Trump claimed during his White House press conference on Tuesday that the WHO repeated false Chinese claims about the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, such as that it was not communicable, and failed to report accurately on the virus as it emerged in January.

"China initially covered up the problem to the extent of denying the doctor who first called attention to the issue, and tragically, apart from being a medical hero he himself died of COVID 19," Caldicott recalled.

"Clearly Xi did not want the world to think that China had a serious health problem. It seems clear that because of Xi's coverup WHO took him at his word."

However, Trump by his own actions compounded the problem and critically delayed US readiness for at least another month, Caldicott observed.

"Of course it's Trump who denied the problem throughout February hence the United States' total lack of readiness re PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment), ventilators and other medical necessities," she said.

The consequences of Trump's move be for the WHO and the global war against such infectious diseases will be very serious, Caldicott warned.

"The WHO is a precious global entity which could never be replaced and one which the world now desperately needs its expertise," she said.

The decision will also have global repercussions, especially across the developing world in such regions as sub-Saharan Africa and Indonesia, Caldicott advised.

Caldicott, an Australian physician, has been one of the world's leading anti-nuclear activists for more than 40 years. She is the author of many books including "The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military Industrial Complex."

Caldicott is a global expert on nuclear dangers to human health. The Smithsonian Institution has named her one of the most influential women of the 20th century.