The World Health Organization's
central role in the coronavirus pandemic must be reinforced,
Health Minister Roberto Speranza said after United States
President Donald Trump threatened to pull out of the WHO unless
it makes "substantive improvements over the next 30 days".
The WHO must be "completely independent of eternal political
or financial influences, and must only be guided by the
science".
Trump late Monday threatened to permanently pull US funding
from the WHO if it does not "commit to major substantive
improvements in the next 30 days."
In a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, Trump said, "It is clear the repeated missteps by
you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have
been extremely costly for the world. The only way forward for
the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate
independence from China.
"My administration has already started discussions with you
on how to reform the organization. But action is needed quickly.
We do not have time to waste."
The threat comes at time when the coronavirus pandemic has
killed more than 90,000 Americans and more than 318,000 people
worldwide as of late Monday and, while there are promising signs
from some vaccine trials, there is no cure for the virus.
The letter also underscores the extent to which blame aimed
at the WHO and China has become a defining part of the
president's response to the outbreak. When many of his
predecessors would rely on global institutions to help stem the
tide of a pandemic, Trump's ultimatum is the latest sign of his
distrust toward world entities.
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