The World Health Organisation must ‘learns lessons’ from its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a Downing Street spokesman has said as it responded to the huge wave of criticism directed at the WHO by US President Donald Trump, Despite this the UK will not follow the President’s policy of cutting its funding.
Number 10 said the WHO’s response to the outbreak of the pandemic in China showed there was room for it to “improve its response” to such emergencies, the message comes after President Trump said he would suspend US support for the WHO pending an investigation into its role “in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”
The US President said the WHO failed to challenge Chinese authorities over how they handled the virus in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan, such as the organisation opposing travel restrictions from China and claiming that the virus could not be transmitted via human to human contact.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said Britain wanted the WHO to “continue to learn lessons on how it can improve its response to global health emergencies”, they continued: “Transparent and accurate information is vital for an effective global response.”
Despite the United States choosing to hold funding of the organisation the UK Government has no plans and will continue to issue grants to the WHO.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said this on the matter: “The UK has no plans to stop funding the WHO, which has an important role to play in leading the global health response to the pandemic. Coronavirus is a global challenge and it’s important that countries work together to tackle this shared threat.
“How we contribute to the WHO is based on our assessment of the WHO’s needs. We keep this under review but we have no plans to stop our own funding.”
China said it was “seriously concerned” about the US announcement and claimed it would worsen the global crisis.
“The current global epidemic situation is grim. It is at a critical moment. This US decision will weaken WHO’s capacities and undermine the international cooperation against the epidemic,” Chinse Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a statement.
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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