OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
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To reporters at the White House, President Trump said, “Today, I am instructing made administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”
Trump said the United States will immediately halt all funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) because it had put “political correctness over lifesaving measures.”
“We have deep concerns over whether America’s generosity has been put to the best use possible,” Trump said.
“The WHO failed in this duty, and must be held accountable,” Trump said.
Trump added that the WHO had ignored “credible information” in December 2019 that the virus could be transmitted from human to human.
The Washington Post admitted in March that critics accused China and WHO of “covering up or downplaying the severity of an infectious disease outbreak.”
Hours after Trump announced travel restrictions on China, former Vice President Joe Biden criticized the president’s “hysterical xenophobia” on January 31st.
Trump: Today, I am instructing made administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/sJ9w3FUqCM
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) April 14, 2020
More from Fox News:
On January 4, in a statement first flagged by The National Review, the head University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Infection warned that “the city should implement the strictest possible monitoring system for a mystery new viral pneumonia that has infected dozens of people on the mainland, as it is highly possible that the illness is spreading from human to human.”
The Chinese government also began suppressing news about the virus. Nevertheless, on January 8, the WHO declared: “Preliminary identification of a novel virus in a short period of time is a notable achievement and demonstrates China’s increased capacity to manage new outbreaks.”
Again on January 14, the WHO simply echoed Chinese government statements: “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in Wuhan, China.”
By January 19, the WHO had changed its tune. “Not enough is known to draw definitive conclusions about how it is transmitted, the clinical features of the disease, the extent to which it has spread, or its source, which remains unknown.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the U.S. and a key member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, has said misinformation from China, repeated by the WHO, had affected U.S. response efforts.
Several media organizations had also uncritically cited WHO’s assurances about the coronavirus.
The Washington Post even ran a story quoting a Chinese official asking for “empathy” and slamming the White House for acting “in disregard of the WHO recommendation against travel restrictions.”
According to a report from Breitbart News, President Trump openly criticized the World Health Organization’s handling of Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
During one of his daily White House briefings, Trump explained how much money the United States paid the WHO, compared to China.
“Last year, it was $452 million, and China paid $42 million,” Trump explained.
Trump pointed out that WHO responded to the coronavirus very slowly, and seemed to be respectful of China’s wishes.
“World Health got it wrong. I mean, they got it very wrong. In many ways, they were wrong,” Trump said. “They also minimized the threat very strongly and not good.”
Trump then referenced a statement from the WHO from January 14 insisting that there was no human to human transfer of the virus, essentially pushing the Chinese propaganda.
“Well, there was,” Trump said.
On the criticism from WHO for the travel ban on those traveling from China, Trump said, We were criticized very badly.”
“I think they have to get their priorities right,” Trump said. “And their priorities are that everybody has to be treated properly — every country. And it doesn’t seem that way, does it?”
