Days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization, citing concerns about China's outsized role, the World Health Organization's top leaders have launched a social media fundraiser. .
Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist who served as WHO's technical lead on the coronavirus pandemic, said: Posted in X On Thursday morning, they appealed for donations to the WHO Foundation.
As of Friday afternoon, only about $23,000 had been raised toward the $1 billion goal.
Please consider donating to @who through @WHO Foundation– 1 dollar, 1 world#I'm proud of who I'm becominghttps://t.co/tCKc41ef3M
— Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) January 23, 2025
This is just a fraction of the $706 million shortfall expected in U.S. contributions over the 2024-2025 biennium budget period, representing 18% of the organization's revenue.
Trump's presidential order — signed just hours after taking office — begins the one-year notice period provided for. joint resolution Adopted by Congress in 1948, it established the United States' membership in the WHO. (Related: President Trump had a busy first 12 hours in office — it was his first big move)
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told staff on Thursday that the organization would implement “cost reductions and efficiency improvements”, including freezing new hiring and halting capital investment “in all but the most critical areas”, the WHO said. news report.
According to a PowerPoint provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation, programs that rely most on voluntary donations in the United States include programs to combat HIV, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, which account for 75% of the world's voluntary donations; %) and tuberculosis (61% of global voluntary donations).
The executive order also recalls US WHO staff and contractors.
According to international convention, the United States must meet its financial obligations to the WHO in the fiscal year before its withdrawal. of Congressional Research Service The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties requires states to pay their remaining financial obligations before withdrawing from a treaty, but it is unclear how the WHO can ensure that mandated payments are enforced, the researchers said. discovered.
The new executive order says the U.S. withdrawal was motivated by “unreasonably high payments from the United States that are far disproportionate to the valuations of other countries,” namely payments from China.
WHO receives rated (mandatory) contributions from member states according to population and GDP and voluntary contributions from both private organizations and member states. Currently, the United States and China pay equal assessment contributions. China was scheduled to pay $181 million in assessment contributions in 2024 and 2025, while the United States was scheduled to pay $264 million. However, in terms of voluntary contributions, China has contributed almost nothing. It is expected to pay just $2.5 million in 2024 and 2025. Prior to the executive order, the United States was expected to make voluntary contributions totaling $442 million.
The WHO had expected the US to pay 2024 assessment contributions totaling $130 million this month, but has not received them to date.
Although China is the world's second largest economy, it still officially classified Recognized as a developing country by the United Nations. Still, China's valuation of the WHO has increased in recent years as its economy has grown, surpassing the $53 million it contributed over the two-year budget period a decade ago.
The executive order also highlights the WHO's deference to Beijing authorities for attempting to gain access to Wuhan's tightly controlled hospitals and laboratories during the COVID-19 pandemic. .
“The United States has criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for its mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China, and for failing to demonstrate independence from inappropriate political influence in WHO member states. , has withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020,” the order states.
The WHO's first mission, which visited Wuhan in February 2020, praised China's lockdown as “perhaps the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history,” but this statement was This was emphasized as an expression of support. Chinese propaganda. a second mission Report and press conference that visited Wuhan in January and February 2021 to uncover the origins of the pandemic dismisses the hypothesis that the pandemic arose from a lab accident as 'highly unlikely' did. Reportedly, That was the only way WHO chief scientist Peter Ben Embarek could include that possibility in the team's conclusions.
WHO has not yet received the complete data needed to assess the origins of the pandemic.
“The WHO has repeatedly called on China to share all available information on early cases, animals sold in Wuhan markets, laboratories working on the coronavirus, etc., but until now… We have not received this information,” Van Kerkove wrote. science January 16th.
Still, Van Kerkove stressed that “it is essential that countries do not pass the blame.”
Van Kerkove's confirmation that early case data is incomplete refutes claims made by Western virologists in 2022. science – This early case data provided by authorities in Beijing to the WHO clearly establishes the pandemic's origins radiating from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.
Some public health experts have warned that excluding the United States from the WHO could limit access to critical data on new outbreaks.
Earlier this month, the WHO notified member states Suspected outbreak of Marburg virus in the United Republic of Tanzania.
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