Cutting funds to WHO is very, very dumb.
* 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.
"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."
We must get this idiot the hell out of the white house.
