President Donald Trump underlined his weeks of blame pointed at WHO for the spread of COVID-19 by announcing his administration would halt funding to the organization on Tuesday.
Trump for weeks had said his administration handled curbing the expansion of coronavirus’ reach as well as it could after receiving advisement from the World Health Organization. However, with the WHO disagreeing with the move to block travel from China, where the disease was first reported, the country’s health measures were compromised.
During his daily press briefing, Trump said that until a review is complete of the organization’s “severe mismanaging and covering up of the spread of the coronavirus,” America would stop funding the entity. The president pinpointed the onus on the organization for its “disastrous decision” to oppose travel restrictions.” Trump boasted that his decision to ignored the WHO’s advice and implement travel bans in March kept from the U.S. losing “thousands and thousands” of lives.
The U.S. reportedly funds more than $400 million to WHO. China, Trump explained, funds only about $40 million of the entity’s efforts. The president alluded to preferential treatment for China, which led to the growth of the rapid and raging virus and “put political correctness above life saving measures.”
As the review is underway, America will receive information about other nations dealing with COVID-19, directly, he said Tuesday.
As the president distanced his White House from the mounting death toll, he has cycled through a long list of possible scapegoats in an attempt to distract from what critics say were his own administration’s missteps in slowing the spread of the coronavirus on American shores.
He also took Tuesday to accentuate his and state governors’ hopes of reopening economy by May 1. He even claimed it “may be sooner” for some states, pointing out that about 15 percent of American counties have no COVID-19 cases.
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