New Delhi (NVI): US President Donald Trump has ordered stoppage of funds to the World Health Organisation (WHO) as he believes that the global body “severely mismanaged” and “covered up” the spread of coronovirus in December last year, as a result of which the entire world is facing an unprecedented crisis.
The announcement by Trump comes against the backdrop of Taiwan’s repeated claim that the WHO did not act on its alert sent on December 31, 2019 about coronavirus being human-transmitted disease.
The charge against the WHO is that it went only by what China told it and did nothing on its own to contain the spread of the deadly pandemic when it started in Wuhan.
“Today, I am instructing my Administration to halt funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organisation’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of coronavirus,” Trump said at a briefing in Washington.
Demanding “full accountability”, the US President said the WHO had taken the “disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China” after the outbreak of the pandemic.
He said the American taxpayers are contributing 400-500 million US dollars per year to the WHO while in contrast, China is providing 40 million US dollars or “even less” to the global body.
Taiwan, which also suspects a “cover up”, has also been pushing the WHO, seeking to know whether or not China notified it in December last year that coronavirus could be transmitted from human to human after detection of some cases in Wuhan.
Taiwan insists that it had warned WHO of the possibility of human-to-human transmission in an email sent to the WHO on December 31, when the COVID-19 outbreak first came to public knowledge.
According to Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang, it had learned about the emergence of atypical pneumonia cases in Wuhan on December 31, 2019, which was later known as COVID-19, and immediately alerted the WHO and the Chinese side through email, requesting them to verify.
Atypical pneumonia is what China commonly referred to as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Chuang has said, stressing that the disease itself, also caused by coronavirus, is transmittable from human to human.
Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung asked whether China, as a WHO member, informed the world health body of the seven cases and human-to-human transmission, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported.
He asked that if the Chinese did not notify the WHO, “what else would be called a cover up?” and “If (the Chinese) did report it, what else would be deemed a dereliction of duty (on the part of the WHO)?”
The WHO has rejected Taiwan’s claims that it had warned the global health body that the novel coronavirus may be transmitted from human to human.
An agitated Taiwan’s government has now released the email it wrote to the WHO on December 31 last year.
“News resources today indicate that at least seven atypical pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, CHINA. Their health authorities replied to the media that the cases were believed not SARS; however the samples are still under examination, and cases have been isolated for treatment. I would greatly appreciate it if you have relevant information to share with us. Thank you very much in advance for your attention to this matter,” it read.
Chen, who is also head of Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), argued that while Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control did not actually mention “human-to-human” transmissions in the email, it had “strongly hinted” at the possibility, the CNA reported.
He said the letter clearly indicated that health authorities in China confirmed seven patients with atypical pneumonia had been isolated for treatment.
“If being isolated for treatment is not a warning, what situation will constitute a warning?” Chen said.
