In the war of words between American and Chinese on the management of the Covid-19 pandemic, Washington rose on a notch, Monday, May 18, as the member states of WHO met for a World Assembly of health, virtual and reduced to thirty-six hours instead of a week, due to the health context. In a letter to the director of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Donald Trump threatens to cut the organization's supplies permanently. "If the WHO does not commit to significant improvements within 30 days, I will transform the temporary suspension of funding to WHO into a permanent measure and reconsider our membership in the organization", he writes.
If this World Assembly has not surprisingly proved to be a field of political confrontation, the American attitude once again shows Mr. Trump's disdain for international organizations. WHO is responsible for global health in the United Nations system, and is responsible for coordinating the international response. In the midst of a pandemic – which has killed more than 300,000 people worldwide – the United States chooses confrontation rather than cooperation.
This virulent charge of Washington could not be more diametrically opposed to the line of Beijing which had taken place a few hours earlier, by the voice of its president Xi Jinping, a great plan of investment in WHO to work collectively to fight against the Covid-19, true to its vision of a "Community of shared future for humanity".
"Intolerable status quo"
The United States, for its part, only mandated its Minister of Health, Alex Azar, who drew up a formal requisition for the organization. "Let us be frank about this epidemic outbreak. This organization failed to get the information the world needed and this failure cost many human lives, " attacked the minister. Washington, the organization's main donor, announced last April that it would suspend its contribution of $ 553 million (506 million euros) pending an investigation into the management of the epidemic by the WHO that President Trump accuses of being too focused on the Beijing line and of ignoring an early warning from Taiwan.
In the midst of a pandemic, the United States chooses confrontation rather than cooperation
Without however naming China, the American secretary of health had denounced "At least one member of WHO" who "In an apparent attempt to cover up the epidemic, breached its transparency obligations and this cost the world dearly".
Azar had hardly given way to doubts about American intentions. "We see that WHO has failed in its basic mission of information sharing and transparency when member states do not act in good faith. This should never be repeated. This status quo is intolerable ”, said the senior American official.
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