Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has criticised US President Donald Trump's decision to cut off funding for the World Health. Organisation. Gates said that the world needs the UN body “now more than ever”.
Bill Gates said, “halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds”.
Gates went on to say, “Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. The world needs WHO now more than ever.”
Trump had accused the World Health Organisation of propagating “false information” and said that its reliance on Chinese data had “likely caused a 20-fold increase in cases worldwide”.
Trump on April 8 said, “We’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. WE’re going to put very powerful hold on it and we’re going to see. It’s a great thing if it works. But when they call every shot wrong, that’s not good.”
He also added that the WHO was wrong about many things and that the organization had a lot of information early on, which wasn’t shared.
Other health experts too, have condemned Trump’s decision.
Lawrence Gostin, a global health law expert from Georgetown University, was quoted in an MSNBC report as saying “there’ll be many more deaths” without a WHO that’s empowered.
Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the Lancet medical journal tweeted, “President Trump’s decision to defund WHO is simply this—a crime against humanity. Every scientist, every health worker, every citizen must resist and rebel against this appalling betrayal of global solidarity.”
Dr Nahid Bhadelia, an infectious disease doctor and associate professor at Boston University’s school of medicine tweeted, “Cutting 15% (US Contribution) of WHO budget during the biggest projected pandemic of the last century is an absolute disaster. @WHO is a global technical partner, the platform through which sovereign countries share data/technology, our eyes on the global scope of this pandemic.”
