National Review Online
Thursday, April 16, 2020
President Trump announced that he would halt funding to
the World Health Organization (WHO) pending an investigation into the agency’s
handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The White House based its decision on a
series of misleading statements issued by the WHO, as well as on director
general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus’s effusive praise of the Chinese government.
(Not coincidentally, China backed Tedros’s bid to lead the organization in
2017.)
Critics charge Trump with scapegoating the WHO for the
administration’s failures, while others caution that pulling funding will
weaken efforts to combat the pandemic. They are wrong on both counts.
It’s no secret that the White House got off to a late start
in combating the coronavirus. Trump downplayed the threat of the disease even
as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans to brace for
an outbreak, and we criticized him for it. But this obviously doesn’t vindicate
the World Health Organization. We noted its failures last
week.
Tedros objected to Trump’s correct decision to impose
travel restrictions on China, claiming it would “have the effect of increasing
fear and stigma, with little public health benefit” — a stark contrast with his
deferential statements about China’s response. In mid January, the WHO
announced that there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of
the novel coronavirus,” despite numerous
reports to the contrary. Parroting Chinese misinformation wasn’t enough for
Tedros: He went on to praise the Chinese Communist Party for “setting a new
standard for outbreak control.” Later, Tedros overruled the objections of WHO
colleagues and delayed the declaration of a public-health emergency, which cost
the world precious time in preparing for the pandemic.
Because there are no existing vaccines or proven
treatments for COVID-19, information is our most valuable resource in fighting
this pandemic. Policymakers must calibrate their responses based on data collected
domestically and received from abroad. In its capacity as the facilitator of
international information exchanges, the WHO is supposed to vet and disseminate
data from its 194 member states. The organization fell down on this most basic
task by buying Chinese spin wholesale.
Some argue that withholding our funding of the WHO — $400
million a year — will hinder its international relief efforts. This is a
legitimate concern, but the WHO’s missteps themselves hindered the fight
against the pandemic at a critical stage. In any event, U.S. funding of
pandemic relief does not depend on any single multilateral bureaucracy. In
fact, the U.S. has already spent more than $500 million on foreign aid to combat
the pandemic — roughly 25 percent of the WHO’s annual budget — on top of
existing contributions to multilateral and nongovernmental organizations.
During the 60-day hold on funds to the WHO, the White House says it will
redirect resources to public-health programs untainted by Chinese influence.
While the White House conducts its investigation, the WHO will retain the bulk
of its considerable resources. In the meantime, it will deservedly face more
international scrutiny for its apparent complicity in China’s coverup of the
coronavirus.
The more the World Health Organization capitulates to
Chinese soft power, the less effective — and the less deserving of our support
— it will be. The White House is right to bring serious pressure to bear to try
to check this trend.
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