Global reaction to Trump withdrawing WHO funding - Reuters

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed his administration to temporarily halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump said the WHO “failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable.” He said it promoted China’s “disinformation” about the virus that likely led to a wider outbreak.

The United States is the biggest overall donor to the Geneva-based WHO, contributing more than $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget.

* AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT

Dr. Patrice Harris called it “a dangerous step in the wrong direction that will not make defeating COVID-19 easier” and urged Trump to reconsider.

* UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES

“Not the time” to reduce resources for WHO operations.

“Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,” he said.

* JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY

“The move sends the wrong message during the middle of a pandemic, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the center.

Adalja said the WHO does make mistakes, as it did in delaying the response to the Ebola outbreak in 2013 and 2014 in West Africa. He said reforms may be needed, but that work needs to take place after the pandemic has passed.

“It’s not the middle of a pandemic that you do this type of thing,” he said.

Adalja said the WHO collects information about where the virus is active in every county in the world, which the United States needs to help guide decisions about when to open borders.

* U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

Directed requests for comment to the White House.

* PROTECT OUR CARE

“This is nothing more than a transparent attempt by President Trump to distract from his history downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis and his administration’s failure to prepare our nation,” said Chair Leslie Dach, who served as the global Ebola coordinator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“To be sure, the World Health Organization is not without fault but it is beyond irresponsible to cut its funding at the height of a global pandemic. This move will undoubtedly make Americans less safe.”

* VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

“This virus doesn’t need passports. In a few short months it has traveled to all of the continents of the world except Antarctica. If there were ever an event that showed us how we need to work tougher as a global community, this is it,” Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease experts.

* CHAIRMAN, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

“With each passing day of this worsening crisis, the president is showing us his political playbook: blame the WHO, blame China, blame his political opponents, blame his predecessors—do whatever it takes to deflect from the fact that his administration mismanaged this crisis and it’s now costing thousands of American lives,” Democratic representative Eliot Engel.

* NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN

“At a time like this when we need to be sharing information and we need to have advice we can rely on, the WHO has provided that. We will continue to support it and continue to make our contributions,” she said.

Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Stephen Coates

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-04-15 11:33:45Z
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Bill Gates, in rebuke of Trump, calls WHO funding cut during pandemic ‘as dangerous as it sounds’ - The Washington Post

The United States, the organization’s largest donor, has committed to provide the WHO with $893 million during its current two-year funding period, a State Department spokesperson told The Washington Post.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the family’s giant philanthropy, is the next biggest donor to WHO after the U.S., accounting for close to 10 percent of the United Nations agency’s funding.

As The Post’s Anne Gearan reported, the president said on Tuesday that the halt in U.S. funding would continue for a period of 60 to 90 days “while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role and severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”

“We have not been treated properly,” Trump said at the Tuesday press briefing. He added, “The WHO pushed China’s misinformation about the virus.”

It remains unclear whether the United States will cut off money to the main international organization, or if Trump is setting conditions for a resumption of U.S. payments at a later date, The Post reported.

The announcement looms as a potentially devastating blow to the agency during the coronavirus pandemic, as the United States’ donations make up nearly 15 percent of all voluntary donations given worldwide.

The criticism from Gates, whose foundation has committed up to $100 million as part of the global response to the pandemic, comes as Trump has attempted to deflect blame for the administration’s failure to respond vigorously and early to the deadly novel coronavirus.

Also defending the WHO was U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, who, while not naming Trump, said that it was “not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus.”

“Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,” he said.

Others, such as the American Medical Association, called Trump’s announcement to cut WHO funding “a dangerous step in the wrong direction.”

“Cutting funding to the WHO — rather than focusing on solutions — is a dangerous move at a precarious moment for the world,” the organization said in a statement. “The AMA is deeply concerned by this decision and its wide-ranging ramifications, and we strongly urge the President to reconsider.”

While some of Trump’s conservative allies are now focusing on the WHO as complicit in a Chinese coverup of the outbreak, others have urged the president to hold off on moving forward on suspending funding.

“If the president wants to genuinely hold the WHO accountable, counter Chinese efforts to shift blame for COVID-19, and reform the WHO to better respond to the next pandemic, he should not cut funding — at least not yet,” wrote Brett D. Schaefer, an expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation and member of the U.N.'s Committee on Contributions.

It isn’t the first time that Gates has questioned the country’s response to the pandemic. In a TED interview last month, Gates, while not mentioning Trump by name, suggested that the push to relax social distancing to reopen the country was reckless.

“There really is no middle ground, and it’s very tough to say to people: ‘Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner. We want you to keep spending because there’s maybe a politician who thinks GDP growth is all that counts,’” Gates said. “It’s very irresponsible for somebody to suggest that we can have the best of both worlds.”

In a March 31 op-ed for The Post, Gates emphasized that while the U.S. lost valuable time in getting out ahead of its response, there was still a path forward for recovery through decisions made by “science, data and the experience of medical professionals.”

“There’s no question the United States missed the opportunity to get ahead of the novel coronavirus. But the window for making important decisions hasn’t closed,” Gates wrote. “The choices we and our leaders make now will have an enormous impact on how soon case numbers start to go down, how long the economy remains shut down and how many Americans will have to bury a loved one because of covid-19.”

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2020-04-15 10:56:00Z
52780728566348

Trump cuts WHO funding over coronavirus, global toll mounts - Reuters

WASHINGTON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday halted funding to the World Health Organization over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, drawing condemnation from infectious disease experts as the global death toll continued to mount.

Trump, who has reacted angrily to criticism of his administration’s response to the worst epidemic in a century, has become increasingly hostile towards the WHO.

The Geneva-based organisation had promoted China’s “disinformation” about the virus that likely led to a wider outbreak than otherwise would have occurred, Trump said.

“The WHO failed in this basic duty and must be held accountable,” Trump told a White House news conference on Tuesday.

Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 124,000 have died since the disease emerged in China late last year, according to a Reuters tally.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was not the time to reduce resources for the WHO.

“Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,” he said in a statement.

The United States is the biggest overall donor to the WHO, contributing more than $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he sympathised with Trump’s criticisms of the WHO, especially its “unfathomable” support of re-opening China’s “wet markets”, where freshly slaughtered animals are sold and where the coronavirus first appeared in the city of Wuhan late last year.

“But that said, the WHO also as an organisation does a lot of important work including here in our region in the Pacific and we work closely with them,” Morrison told an Australian radio station on Wednesday.

“We are not going to throw the baby out of with the bathwater here, but they are also not immune from criticism and immune from doing things better.”

More than 2,200 died in the United States alone on Tuesday, a record toll according to a Reuters tally, even as the country debated how to reopen its economy.

New York City, the U.S. city hardest hit by the pandemic, revised its death toll sharply up to more than 10,000 on Tuesday, to include victims presumed to have perished from the lung disease but never tested.

U.S. health care advocacy group Protect Our Care said Trump’s WHO funding withdrawal was “a transparent attempt by President Trump to distract from his history downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis and his administration’s failure to prepare our nation,”

“To be sure, the World Health Organization is not without fault but it is beyond irresponsible to cut its funding at the height of a global pandemic,” said Leslie Dach, the chair of Protect Our Care.

‘NOT SEEING THE PEAK YET’

After weeks of lockdowns in several European countries, the WHO said the number of new cases were tailing off in some areas, such as Italy and Spain, but outbreaks were growing in Britain and Turkey.

“The overall world outbreak - 90% of cases are coming from Europe and the United States of America. So we are certainly not seeing the peak yet,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a briefing in Geneva.

India extended a lockdown on its 1.3 billion people until at least May 3 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said economic sacrifices were needed to save lives as the number of coronavirus cases exceeded 10,000.

New cases in mainland China dropped to 46, compared to 89 a day earlier, Chinese health officials reported on Wednesday, with one further death. Most cases were from overseas travellers returning from Russia.

Asian share markets edged higher as China moved again to cushion its economy, cutting a key medium-term interest rate to record lows and paving the way for a similar reduction in benchmark loan rates. [MKTS/GLOB]

HEALTH/ECONOMY BALANCE

The global economy is expected to shrink by 3% this year, the International Monetary Fund said, marking the steepest downturn since the Great Depression.

Trump, who has declared he will decide when to lift U.S. lockdowns, suggested some Democratic state governors were “mutineers” after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would refuse any order that risked reigniting the outbreak.

Trump’s top infectious disease adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the president’s May 1 target for restarting the economy was “overly optimistic”.

Airlines have been among the hardest hit as borders have closed and citizens have been told to stay at home to slow the spread.

Chinese airlines reported a total loss of $4.8 billion in the first quarter, the country’s aviation regulator said.

The U.S. Treasury Department said major passenger airlines have agreed in principle to a $25 billion rescue package, ensuring airline workers have jobs until October while the industry battles its biggest-ever crisis.

In New Zealand, where a strict lockdown has limited the number of cases and deaths, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced she, her ministers and public service chief executives will take a 20% pay cut for the next six months given the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

(GRAPHIC- World-focused tracker with country-by-country interactive: https:/)/graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/COUNTRIES/oakveqlyvrd/index.html?id=united-kingdom)

U.S. President Donald Trump attends the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 14, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis

(GRAPHIC-Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S. : here)

(Open tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in a separate browser for an interactive graphic to track the global spread.)

Reporting from Reuters bureaux across the world; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-04-15 10:51:24Z
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Coronavirus updates: Trump says states will decide when to reopen - CBS News

  14m ago

Russia says U.S. should "refrain from further attacks" on WHO, stop finding "someone to blame"

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Wednesday defended the World Health Organization as a respected global body, a day after President Trump blamed the U.N. agency for the dizzying death toll caused by the new coronavirus and accused it of mishandling the world response to the crisis.

"We are calling on the U.S. to refrain from further attacks on the WHO and pursue a responsible policy, which would not ruin the basis of international cooperation in the medical and biological field, but on the contrary would enhance this cooperation and create a basis for its further development," Ryabkov said, according to Russia's TASS news agency.

Russian officials said the decision by Mr. Trump showed the White House's priority was to scapegoat other institutions as the U.S. grapples with the world's deadliest COVID-19 outbreak.  

"Politicians in that country always have someone to blame," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS. "The most important thing is to find a fictitious 'test tube' and present it to the world as evidence of the guilt of others, and its own flawlessness."  

  30m ago

Germany slams Trump's WHO payment freeze

Germany slammed Wednesday the U.S. decision to suspend payments to the World Health Organization (WHO), as Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned against "blaming others" for the coronavirus crisis. 

"Blaming others won't help. The virus knows no borders," Maas wrote on Twitter. "One of the best investments is to strengthen the UN, above all the under-financed WHO... in the development and distribution of tests and vaccines." 

The United States is the biggest contributor to the WHO, making payments of $400 million last year. Mr. Trump accused the Geneva-based body of putting "political correctness above life-saving measures." 

The move sparked criticism across the world, and Maas joined the chorus on Wednesday, stressing the need for countries to "work together closely against COVID-19." 

Maas has previously taken aim at the Trump administration's reaction to the virus crisis. In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine last week, he said the United States had "played down the virus for a very long time." 

"There really isn't any dispute, even in the USA, that many of the measures were taken too late," he told Spiegel. 

- AFP

  34m ago

India to start easing some lockdown measures in 5 days in bid to salvage its economy

A day after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown aimed at curbing the coronavirus until May 3, his government has announced plans to relax the measures in some areas less affected by the COVID-19 disease in a bid to revive the failing economy. 

The government said that in rural areas where the virus is slowing, from April 20 all farm activity and construction work, and some industry, would be allowed to resume. The inter-state transport of goods and e-commerce would also be allowed to resume throughout the country to help maintain supply chains for food and essential items.

However, in "hotspots" and "red zones" — areas where a high number of coronavirus cases have been found — no economic activity will be permitted to restart yet. India has reported nearly 11,500 cases of COVID-19 and 377 deaths.  

The relaxation of the lockdown measures will help some of the 450 million members of the nation's informal workforce, most of whom have been out of work since the lockdown began on March 25, find work again.

  53m ago

Bill Gates calls Trump's decision to withhold WHO funding "as dangerous as it sounds"

Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said President Trump's decision to suspend hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. funding for the World Health Organization in the midst of a global coronavirus pandemic "is as dangerous as it sounds."

Gates has been warning about the threat of a global pandemic since 2015 and has committed $100 million to fight the coronavirus through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.    

Mr. Trump announced the halt in U.S. funding Tuesday, accusing the U.N. health agency of deliberately misleading the world about the gravity of the COVID-19 outbreak in China and blaming it for the high death tolls around the world. 

In a tweet sent hours later, Gates said the WHO's "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."

Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds. 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.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) April 15, 2020

  5:16 AM

Search for vaccine heats up in U.S. and China

Three potential COVID-19 vaccines are making fast progress in early-stage testing in volunteers in China and the U.S., but it's still a long road to prove if they'll really work.

China's CanSino Biologics has begun the second phase of testing its vaccine candidate, China's Ministry of Science and Technology said Tuesday.

In the U.S., a shot made by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. isn't far behind. The first person to receive that experimental vaccine last month returned to a Seattle clinic Tuesday for a second dose. NIH infectious disease chief Dr. Anthony Fauci told The Associated Press there are "no red flags" so far and he hoped the next, larger phase of testing could begin around June.

A third candidate, from Inovio Pharmaceuticals, began giving experimental shots for first-step safety testing last week in the U.S. and hopes to expand its studies to China.

  5:15 AM

South Koreans vote in national elections amid virus fears

South Korean voters are wearing masks and moving slowly between lines of tape at polling stations to elect lawmakers in the shadows of the coronavirus. 

The government has resisted calls to postpone the parliamentary elections billed as a midterm referendum for President Moon Jae-in. He enters the final years of his term grappling with a historic public health crisis that is unleashing massive economic shock.

South Koreans are deeply divided along ideological and generational lines and regional loyalties. But recent surveys showed support for Moon and his liberal party, reflecting the public's approval of an aggressive test-and-quarantine program so far credited for lower fatality rates compared to areas worse hit by the virus. 

  5:11 AM

U.N. chief speaks out after Trump halts U.S. funding for WHO: "Now is the time for unity"

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged unity among world powers Tuesday, hours after President Trump said he would halt funding for the World Health Organization. 

Guterres reiterated a statement he made on April 8, in which he wrote, "Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe, and how all those involved reacted to the crisis. The lessons learned will be essential to effectively address similar challenges, as they may arise in the future. But now is not that time."

"It is not that time," he stressed on Tuesday. "It is also not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus." 

"As I have said before, now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences," Guterres said. 

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2020-04-15 10:15:00Z
52780728447957

Global reaction to Trump withdrawing WHO funding - Reuters

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed his administration to temporarily halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump said the WHO had “failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable”. He said it promoted China’s “disinformation” about the virus that likely led to a wider outbreak.

The United States is the biggest overall donor to the Geneva-based WHO, contributing more than $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget.

* CHINA’S FOREIGN MINISTRY

China urged the United States to fulfil its obligations to the WHO. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected nearly 2 million people globally, was at a critical stage and that the U.S. decision would affect all countries.

* GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER HEIKO MAAS

“Apportioning blame doesn’t help. The virus knows no borders,” Maas said on Twitter on Wednesday.

“We have to work closely together against #COVID19. One of the best investments is to strengthen the @UN, especially the under-funded @WHO, for example for developing and distributing tests and vaccines.”

* AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT

Dr. Patrice Harris called it “a dangerous step in the wrong direction that will not make defeating COVID-19 easier” and urged Trump to reconsider.

* U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES

“Not the time” to reduce resources for WHO operations.

“Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,” he said.

* JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY

“The move sends the wrong message during the middle of a pandemic,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases expert and senior scholar.

Adalja said the WHO does make mistakes, as it did in delaying the response to the Ebola outbreak in 2013 and 2014 in West Africa. He said reforms may be needed, but that work needs to take place after the pandemic has passed.

“It’s not the middle of a pandemic that you do this type of thing,” he said.

Adalja said the WHO collects information about where the virus is active in every county in the world, which the United States needs to help guide decisions about when to open borders.

* U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

Directed requests for comment to the White House.

* PROTECT OUR CARE

“This is nothing more than a transparent attempt by President Trump to distract from his history downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis and his administration’s failure to prepare our nation,” said Chair Leslie Dach, who served as the global Ebola coordinator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“To be sure, the World Health Organization is not without fault but it is beyond irresponsible to cut its funding at the height of a global pandemic. This move will undoubtedly make Americans less safe.”

Protect Our Care is a U.S. organisation working to protect affordable coverage for all Americans.

* VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

“This virus doesn’t need passports. In a few short months it has travelled to all of the continents of the world except Antarctica. If there were ever an event that showed us how we need to work tougher as a global community, this is it,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease experts.

* CHAIRMAN, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

“With each passing day of this worsening crisis, the president is showing us his political playbook: blame the WHO, blame China, blame his political opponents, blame his predecessors - do whatever it takes to deflect from the fact that his administration mismanaged this crisis and it’s now costing thousands of American lives,” Democratic representative Eliot Engel.

* NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN

“At a time like this when we need to be sharing information and we need to have advice we can rely on, the WHO has provided that. We will continue to support it and continue to make our contributions,” she said.

* AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER SCOTT MORRISON

Morrison said he sympathised with Trump’s criticisms of the WHO, especially its support of re-opening China’s “wet markets”, where freshly slaughtered animals are sold and where the outbreak first appeared in the city of Wuhan late last year.

“But that said, the WHO also as an organisation does a lot of important work including here in our region in the Pacific and we work closely with them,” Morrison said.

“We are not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater here, but they are also not immune from criticism and immune from doing things better.”

Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Stephen Coates

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-04-15 09:56:15Z
52780728320193

Factbox: Reaction to Trump withdrawing WHO funding - Reuters

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed his administration to temporarily halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump said the WHO had “failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable”. He said it promoted China’s “disinformation” about the virus that likely led to a wider outbreak.

The United States is the biggest overall donor to the Geneva-based WHO, contributing more than $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget.

* CHINA’S FOREIGN MINISTRY

China urged the United States to fulfil its obligations to the WHO. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected nearly 2 million people globally, was at a critical stage and that the U.S. decision would affect all countries.

* GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER HEIKO MAAS

“Apportioning blame doesn’t help. The virus knows no borders,” Maas said on Twitter on Wednesday.

“We have to work closely together against #COVID19. One of the best investments is to strengthen the @UN, especially the under-funded @WHO, for example for developing and distributing tests and vaccines.”

* AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT

Dr. Patrice Harris called it “a dangerous step in the wrong direction that will not make defeating COVID-19 easier” and urged Trump to reconsider.

* U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES

“Not the time” to reduce resources for WHO operations.

“Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,” he said.

* JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY

“The move sends the wrong message during the middle of a pandemic,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases expert and senior scholar.

Adalja said the WHO does make mistakes, as it did in delaying the response to the Ebola outbreak in 2013 and 2014 in West Africa. He said reforms may be needed, but that work needs to take place after the pandemic has passed.

“It’s not the middle of a pandemic that you do this type of thing,” he said.

Adalja said the WHO collects information about where the virus is active in every county in the world, which the United States needs to help guide decisions about when to open borders.

* U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

Directed requests for comment to the White House.

* PROTECT OUR CARE

“This is nothing more than a transparent attempt by President Trump to distract from his history downplaying the severity of the coronavirus crisis and his administration’s failure to prepare our nation,” said Chair Leslie Dach, who served as the global Ebola coordinator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“To be sure, the World Health Organization is not without fault but it is beyond irresponsible to cut its funding at the height of a global pandemic. This move will undoubtedly make Americans less safe.”

Protect Our Care is a U.S. organisation working to protect affordable coverage for all Americans.

* VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

“This virus doesn’t need passports. In a few short months it has travelled to all of the continents of the world except Antarctica. If there were ever an event that showed us how we need to work tougher as a global community, this is it,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease experts.

* CHAIRMAN, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

“With each passing day of this worsening crisis, the president is showing us his political playbook: blame the WHO, blame China, blame his political opponents, blame his predecessors - do whatever it takes to deflect from the fact that his administration mismanaged this crisis and it’s now costing thousands of American lives,” Democratic representative Eliot Engel.

* NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN

“At a time like this when we need to be sharing information and we need to have advice we can rely on, the WHO has provided that. We will continue to support it and continue to make our contributions,” she said.

* AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER SCOTT MORRISON

Morrison said he sympathised with Trump’s criticisms of the WHO, especially its support of re-opening China’s “wet markets”, where freshly slaughtered animals are sold and where the outbreak first appeared in the city of Wuhan late last year.

“But that said, the WHO also as an organisation does a lot of important work including here in our region in the Pacific and we work closely with them,” Morrison said.

“We are not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater here, but they are also not immune from criticism and immune from doing things better.”

Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Stephen Coates

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-04-15 09:18:11Z
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