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President Trump halts funding to World Health Organization, accuses agency of mismanaging COVID-19 crisis

"WHO's attack on travel restrictions put political correctness above lifesaving measures," says President Trump.

News 12 Staff

Apr 14, 2020, 7:40 PM

Updated 1,720 days ago

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President Trump halts funding to World Health Organization, accuses agency of mismanaging COVID-19 crisis
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(AP) - President Donald Trump says he is halting U.S. payments to the World Health Organization pending a review of its warnings about the coronavirus and China.
President Trump says the outbreak could have been contained at its source and spared lives had the U.N. health agency done a better job investigating reports coming out of China.
The president says the world depends on the World Health Organization to work with countries to make sure accurate information about health threats are shared in a timely manner.
Trump claims the organization failed to carry out its “basic duty” and must be held accountable. But he says the U.S. will continue to engage with the organization in pursuit of what he calls meaningful reforms. 
The president also announced a new public-private partnership aimed at making as many as 60,000 ventilators available to patients in coronavirus hot spots.
PHOTOS: Countries around the world cope with COVID-19
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President Trump says the partnership will allow hospitals to lend unused ventilators to other hospitals with greater need. He says that more than 20 of the nation’s largest health systems have pledged to lend more than 4,000 ventilators where needed.
Governors have expressed concerns about the availability of ventilators as their states experienced a surge in critically ill patients. Trump says some governors requested far more than what they ultimately needed. He also asserts that the federal government has smartly rationed ventilators and that there are currently about 10,000 ventilators in a federal stockpile should they be needed.
More notes are below:
  • President Trump: "At the end of the tunnel, we are starting to see light."
  • "Today i'm instructing my 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."
  • "American taxpayers pay up to $400-500 million. China provides up to $40 million."
  • "One of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations."
  • "WHO's attack on travel restrictions put political correctness above lifesaving measures."
  • "The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain, vet and share information in a timely and transparent fashion."
  • Trump says it's time to make the WHO accountable.
  • "WHO's reliance on China for disclosures likely caused a 20-fold increase in cases worldwide, and it may be much more than that."
  • "Due to our early and aggressive action, the skill of our health care workers and the resilience  
    of our health care system, no hospital in America has been forced to deny any patient access to a ventilator."
  • President Trump says 30,000 ventilators were made in America last year. This year, there may be up to 200,000.
  • Dynamic Ventilator Reserve program: President Trump announces loan program with the aim of making as many as 60,000 ventilators available to help coronavirus patients.
  • "The plans to reopen the country are close to being finalized."
  • "We will soon be sharing details and new guidelines with everybody. I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly and I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening, and a very powerful reopening plan of their state at a time and in a manner as most appropriate."
  • "We will hold the governors accountable, but again, we are going to be working with them to make sure it works really well." President Trump says teleconference with governors will take place on Thursday. 
  • "I'm not putting any pressure on the governors," says President Trump. 
  • President Trump says he and Gov. Cuomo "will get along just fine."