Pompeo says U.S. may never restore WHO funds after cutoff over pandemic

By David Brunnstrom and Humeyra Pamuk

 

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, U.S., April 22, 2020. Nicholas Kamm/Pool via REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the COVID-19 pandemic shows the need to overhaul the World Health Organization, warning that Washington may never restore WHO funding and could even work to set up an alternative to the U.N. body instead.

 

As Pompeo launched fresh attacks on the WHO, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives accused the Trump administration of trying to "scapegoat" the institution to distract from its own handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

 

In a letter to President Donald Trump, they called for the immediate restoration of U.S. funding, which Trump suspended last week after accusing the WHO of being "China-centric" and of promoting China's "disinformation" about the outbreak.

 

Pompeo told Fox News late on Wednesday there needed to be "a structural fix of the WHO" to correct its "shortcomings."

 

Asked if he was urging a change in leadership of the WHO, Pompeo replied: "Even more than that, it may be the case that the United States can never return to underwriting, having U.S. taxpayer dollars go to the WHO."

 

In a radio show interview on Thursday, Pompeo was asked if he saw a time when the role of the WHO might be supplanted by another organization. "We’re going to take a look at exactly that issue," he replied.

 

"If the institution works and functions, the United States will always lead and be part of it. When it’s not delivering, when in fact it’s failing to get the outcomes that are desired, we’re going to work with partners around the world to deliver a structure, a form, a governance model, that will actually deliver on the intended purposes."

 

The WHO has denied the Trump administration's charges and China insists it has been transparent and open.

 

The United States has been the biggest overall donor to the WHO, contributing over $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of its budget. Senior U.S. officials last week told Reuters Washington could redirect these funds to other aid groups.

 

On Wednesday, Pompeo said the United States "strongly believed" Beijing had failed to report the outbreak in a timely manner, in breach of WHO rules. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom did not use his ability "to go public" when a member state failed to follow those rules, Pompeo added.

 

The acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development said on Wednesday the United States would assess if the WHO was being run properly and look for alternative partners outside the body.

 

Any threat to definitively end U.S. funding of the global body would likely hinge on Trump succeeding in his bid for re-election in the November presidential vote against the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

 

The U.S. Congress controls federal spending, and could pass legislation to guarantee funding for the WHO. However, to become law it would need to garner enough support, including from Trump's Republicans, not just to pass but to override a likely veto.

 

According to a Reuters tally, the coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 180,000 people worldwide, including nearly 48,000 in the United States, making it the worst-hit country by official statistics.

 

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Humeyra Pamuk and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Tom Brown)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-24

 

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I strongly doubt that I’ll say by February next year when you are looking for a new gig lol

This administration may not as they are looking for scapegoats, but will they be there next year?

There are a number of things on ‘the world stage’ this President and his administration has vandalized and that the US might not be able to restore, funding to the WHO is not one of them.

49 minutes ago, Tug said:

I strongly doubt that I’ll say by February next year when you are looking for a new gig lol

Why would he be looking for a new gig?

I think there is some sense in what Pompeo is saying. Notice how "US tax-payer's dollars" gets slipped in. That will get the workers on-side. Election year after all. Although Mr Pompeo is supposed to be neutral.

 

A WHO run by the Americans; interesting! What about that WTO (that the US generally ignores)? Could it do with reform? And the IMF. No that's a private and independent concern. Anything else? What about a 'regime change organisation' (RCO), or a world climate change organisation (WCCO)? 

 

I can see the method in the madness. There is so much that could be done after this beastly C-17 is done and dusted. Can't wait!

 

Kick the Iranians out of Iran (KTIOOI) and stop the Chinese in the South China sea (STCITSCS). Just rolls off the tongue.

28 minutes ago, owl sees all said:

I think there is some sense in what Pompeo is saying. Notice how "US tax-payer's dollars" gets slipped in. That will get the workers on-side. Election year after all. Although Mr Pompeo is supposed to be neutral.

 

A WHO run by the Americans; interesting! What about that WTO (that the US generally ignores)? Could it do with reform? And the IMF. No that's a private and independent concern. Anything else? What about a 'regime change organisation' (RCO), or a world climate change organisation (WCCO)? 

 

I can see the method in the madness. There is so much that could be done after this beastly C-17 is done and dusted. Can't wait!

 

Kick the Iranians out of Iran (KTIOOI) and stop the Chinese in the South China sea (STCITSCS). Just rolls off the tongue.

Pompeo is not neutral and not supposed to be neutral. he is part of the Trump administration.

 

Yes, otherwise you make good points.

Off topic trolling posts and replies have been removed.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the COVID-19 pandemic shows the need to overhaul the World Health Organization, warning that Washington may never restore WHO funding

Apparently this guy is not aware of the fact that a president can only sit for 2 terms (8 year), and that neither he is going to be secretary of state forever.

No.1 cretin: Trump. No.2 cretin: Pompeo. Two cretins putting "America first", trashing international institutions, and taking America down in influence and power.

1 hour ago, sprq said:

No.1 cretin: Trump. No.2 cretin: Pompeo. Two cretins putting "America first", trashing international institutions, and taking America down in influence and power.

All countries' leaders should put their country first.

Influence and power does not come from letting others walk all over you.

Lets say that the USA leaves the WHO. Then who will they rely on to get advanced notice of epidemics? Yes, there have been problems with the way China reported its outbreak of Covid-19. But there were also problems with the way that the USA reported the outbreak of the so-called Spanish Flu in 1918 - this leaped the species barrier to humans, came from turkeys on a farm in Pennsylvania and was transported to Europe via troop ships and other means - killed up to 100 million humans overall.

 

The Trump administration got rid of their own surveillance office at the CDC (which also had a presence in the White House) because it was set up by the Obama administration. So if something arises again in China, what happens? China might not grant access to USA scientists because of diplomatic and trade wars. And anyway, since there won't be any vigilance (which involves scientists spending time in other countries), the USA will be in the dark about any pending pandemics.

 

In other words, the Trump administration is prepared to throw its population under a bus so as to "look good!"

Tedros was bought and paid for by the CCP.  They parroted the CCP claims.  They ignored Taiwan’s information.

USA was the #1 financial backer of WHO.

Bill and Melinda Gates the #2 backer.

Let CCP and liberals pay for WHO.

Cut of fundings to WHO, UN, NATO, South Korea, Japan and still in record budget deficits. Just where did all those savings went? Space force? 

The WHO don't know what they're talking about anyway with Covid19. Why didn't they look into injecting bleach or shining a UV torch up people's a**es as the extremely stable genius suggests.

There is a first for everything. Pompeo got something right.

 

Bring that money home. Build a school, hospital or a <deleted> bridge. 

2 hours ago, DoctorG said:

All countries' leaders should put their country first.

Influence and power does not come from letting others walk all over you.

Thank you DoctorG  

This is one of the few comments on this post that makes any sense.  Every nation has the right to its own set of rules.  Those policies and those of its leaders should always put themselves for their own citizens first.  To do otherwise is just plain stupid.

It is fine to "hate" Trump but the irrational comments just shows you that you can educate ignorance, medicate those who are crazy but you can't fix stupid.  The WHO knew that the coronavirus was present, knew or should have known how contagious it was, yet they did not do their primary job of protecting the world.  And, the USA whether through Trump or someone else should continue to prop up an organization that is failing its primary mission? 

An off topic baiting post and the off topic replies have been removed. 

8 minutes ago, Thomas J said:

Thank you DoctorG  

This is one of the few comments on this post that makes any sense.  Every nation has the right to its own set of rules.  Those policies and those of its leaders should always put themselves for their own citizens first.  To do otherwise is just plain stupid.

It is fine to "hate" Trump but the irrational comments just shows you that you can educate ignorance, medicate those who are crazy but you can't fix stupid.  The WHO knew that the coronavirus was present, knew or should have known how contagious it was, yet they did not do their primary job of protecting the world.  And, the USA whether through Trump or someone else should continue to prop up an organization that is failing its primary mission? 

If leaders should put their citizens first as you said, then Trump must be doing a lousy job as the infections and deaths are highest in the world. Even if WHO is not doing their job well, really no excuse for Trump to be poorly prepared and not doing enough from Feb to March. Nothing to do with hating Trump but pointing out his inadequacies. 

1 hour ago, Eric Loh said:

Cut of fundings to WHO, UN, NATO, South Korea, Japan and still in record budget deficits. Just where did all those savings went? Space force? 

Yes, cut funding of WHO.  George Soros, Bill & Melinda Gates and the CCP can easily pick up the difference.  After all, their boy Tedros was schooled in Ethiopian radical organizations.

Trumpism” (MAGA, Drain the Swamp, Fake News, Deep State etc.) has now more precisely been called “Know-nothingism”

2 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

Yes, cut funding of WHO.  George Soros, Bill & Melinda Gates and the CCP can easily pick up the difference.  After all, their boy Tedros was schooled in Ethiopian radical organizations.

Bill & Melinda Gates already did step up. Fine time for America to cut funds during a pandemic. Go figure...

1 hour ago, Thomas J said:

Thank you DoctorG  

This is one of the few comments on this post that makes any sense.  Every nation has the right to its own set of rules.  Those policies and those of its leaders should always put themselves for their own citizens first.  To do otherwise is just plain stupid.

It is fine to "hate" Trump but the irrational comments just shows you that you can educate ignorance, medicate those who are crazy but you can't fix stupid.  The WHO knew that the coronavirus was present, knew or should have known how contagious it was, yet they did not do their primary job of protecting the world.  And, the USA whether through Trump or someone else should continue to prop up an organization that is failing its primary mission? 

Do you mean that Trump did not freely chose his own policy? Do you mean that it has not been his own choice to downplay the epidemic risk and do nothing for about 6 weeks in February/March despite warnings by his own staff (Navarro), several experts and also the WHO?

 

WHO says new China virus could spread, it's warning all hospitals

GENEVA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - There has been “limited” human-to-human transmission of a new coronavirus that has struck in China, mainly small clusters in families, but there is potential for wider spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/china-health-pneumonia-who/who-says-new-china-virus-could-spread-its-warning-all-hospitals-idUSL8N29F48F

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization asked countries to be “as aggressive as possible” in fighting the newly named COVID-19 coronavirus on Tuesday.

“If the world doesn’t want to wake up and consider the virus as public enemy number one, I don’t think we will learn from our lessons,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who/coronavirus-emergency-is-public-enemy-number-1-who-idUSKBN2050YV

11 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

Yes, cut funding of WHO.  George Soros, Bill & Melinda Gates and the CCP can easily pick up the difference.  After all, their boy Tedros was schooled in Ethiopian radical organizations.

On the other side of the coin Tedros delivered a tremendous amount of excellent work with improving quality of life in his fields of expertise and was highly educated, eventually gaining a PhD at a UK University and many awards.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tedros_Adhanom

 

His organisation's errors in its dealing with China are unfortunate, at the same time there has been misinformation and misdirected blame for political purposes. When one reads the conclusions and recommendations made as an outcome of WHO's on the ground investigation dated 28 February (WHO investigation team was initially denied entry, but finally gained entry to China on 18/02) people will realise their recommendations were spot and enacted by  Covid-19 effected nations. IMO it is very short sighted to withdraw funding from an organisation that has done a great deal of good over the decades, rather than work though and implement lessons learned and move on. 

22 minutes ago, earlinclaifornia said:

Bill & Melinda Gates already did step up. Fine time for America to cut funds during a pandemic. Go figure...

22 minutes ago, earlinclaifornia said:

The WHO is CCP biased.  Tedro is hand picked by the CCP.  American taxpayers do not need to contribute to this any more.

i’m happy for Bill & Melinda Gates to step up funding.  I like MSFT, and own some stock.  And if you liberals want to help in funding, maybe CCP can help direct your funds.  Or perhaps a WHO/CCP Go Fund Me account for you?

17 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

The WHO is CCP biased.  Tedro is hand picked by the CCP.  American taxpayers do not need to contribute to this any more.

i’m happy for Bill & Melinda Gates to step up funding.  I like MSFT, and own some stock.  And if you liberals want to help in funding, maybe CCP can help direct your funds.  Or perhaps a WHO/CCP Go Fund Me account for you?

 

Edited April 24, 20206 yr by earlinclaifornia

39 minutes ago, earlinclaifornia said:

 

Biden will fund and the base is happy now.

1 hour ago, earlinclaifornia said:

Biden will fund and the base is happy now.

1 hour ago, earlinclaifornia said:

In your dreams.  Have you contacted CCP about your WHO funding, yet?

Quote

Pompeo says U.S. may never restore WHO funds after cutoff over pandemic

He means may not restore WHO funds while they are in office. 

2 hours ago, candide said:

WHO says new China virus could spread, it's warning all hospitals

when did they call it by that title? - WHO are toeing the CCP face saving line as to how the virus is named by them