"World" editorial. During the pandemic, the demolition work continues. Like a locomotive launched at full steam and whose brakes have released, Donald Trump is unable to stop: his compatriots are waging a desperate fight to stop the spread of a virus that kills in the United States even more than elsewhere, the the world's largest economy is collapsing and almost the entire planet is in the throes of a health crisis that has already affected more than two million people. But the President of the United States finds nothing better to do than to suspend the American contribution to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is specifically responsible for coordinating the fight against this pandemic.
With some $ 500 million paid in 2019, the United States is the largest contributor to WHO, both in terms of its share and through voluntary contributions for specific projects. These amounts amounted, in 2018, to 22% of the organization’s budget.
WHO's management of the coronavirus crisis is far from perfect. As the investigations of the World since January, china has managed to influence some of its decisions and delay announcements about the transmission of the virus between humans, which would likely have saved lives if they had arrived earlier. The irony was that Taiwan, sidelined from WHO because of the Beijing opposition, had led an exemplary strategy against the epidemic. But the time to take stock will come later. President Trump is particularly ill-placed to decide to punish WHO on the pretext that it has "Seriously bankrupt in management" of the pandemic and that it has "Concealed the spread"who maintained that the situation was under control in the United States until it became impossible for him to deny the obvious.
The worst idea
Interrupting WHO funding in the middle of the battle against a global health crisis is the worst idea a political leader can have. For philanthropist Bill Gates, ex-boss of Microsoft, whose foundation is the second largest contributor to WHO after the United States and who has just donated $ 100 million for research into vaccines and treatments against virus, President Trump's decision is "Particularly dangerous" : WHO’s efforts, he tweeted, “Are slowing the progression of the Covid-19; if this work is stopped, no other organization is there to take over. The world needs WHO like never before ".
"Now is the time to show solidarity, not to undermine multilateral cooperation", denounced the European Commission. Trump hates multilateralism, and to make up for his own errors in judgment, he wants his voters to believe that China, where the epidemic started, and WHO are responsible for the tragedy that is taking place. on America. After treating the coronavirus threat casually, Donald Trump, who never takes his eyes off the deadline of the November 3 presidential election, now seems nervous, holds endless daily briefings on the crisis, stirs up tension , comes into conflict with the governors of the federated states. It is not enough for him. Today, by further weakening international cooperation to serve his own interests, it is the whole world that he is endangering.
