in the United States almost 27,000
people have died from kovat 19 making it
the country worst affected by the
outbreak but it's the words and actions
of President Trump still dominating
headlines
he's been heavily criticized for halting
funding for the World Health
Organization here's how it started today
I'm instructing my administration to
halt funding of the World Health
Organization while a review is conducted
to assess the World Health
Organization's role and severely
mismanaging and covering up the spread
of the corona virus everybody knows
what's going on there while world's
leaders diplomats doctors have
criticized the announcement this is what
the World Health Organization itself had
to say earlier this is a time for all of
us to be united in our common struggle
against a common threat a dangerous
enemy when we are divided the virus
exploits the cracks between us we're
committed to serving the world's people
and to accountability for the resources
with which we are entrusted and this is
the reaction from the editor of The
Lancet medical journal well the World
Health Organization's primary role is to
defend the health of the world's
population and a crime against humanity
is a systematic attempt to hurt the
health and well-being of a population
president Trump has clearly committed
that crime well as well as accusing the
w-h-o of a cover-up president Trump said
it failed to adequately assess the
outbreak when it first emerged in the
city of Wuhan and accused it of trusting
China too much the w-h-o willingly took
China's assurances to face value and
they took it just at face value and
defended the actions of the Chinese
government even praising China for its
so-called transparency I don't think so
well that's here China's
reaction to that don't you 20 or eating
the current global pandemic is grave
this is a critical moment the u.s.
decision will weaken the wh o--'s
ability to handle the pandemic and will
undermine the international cooperation
against Kovan 19 all nations including
the United States will suffer from the
impact of the decision and Carrie Allen
has been monitoring Chinese social media
for US China in the US had a very
difficult relationship going back to
early January when we were first hearing
about this virus and it was very much
the case that you know we were hearing
Donald Trump Collings the Chinese virus
that Chinese media wanting to give the
impression that the US was not
cooperating it was pointing the finger
and so now that the US has suspended
funding for the World Health
Organization this this really increases
this line in China and people are very
angry about this they're seeing the u.s.
is not being cooperative very much
Donald Trump distancing himself from
everything and wanting to point blame
rather than helping other countries so
now I'm seeing a lot of lies on social
media platforms like Sina Weibo with
people saying that he clearly doesn't
care about other people's feelings and
that he's you know there's a lot of
anger towards him and a lot of concern
for the US people and a bit of context
here the US has the highest number of
cases and deaths worldwide and there's
been criticism of the federal
government's handling of the crisis so
this is also political a blame game
ahead of this year's u.s. presidential
election well that's bring in Anthony
zurka who's in Washington hi Anthony
good to see so it's always slightly
uncomfortable talking about this through
a political lens isn't it we had so many
deaths there in the US but this is an
election issue and that's simply the
reality here it's politicians who are
handling this crisis and so is by nature
going to be a political debate when it
comes down to it and as you mentioned
Donald Trump has been getting a lot of
criticism for his handling of the US
response to this virus downplaying its
severity early on whether he did enough
in February to prepare various hospitals
and
care systems to deal with the patients
and so now you've seen him attempt to
ship some of this blame most recently to
the w-h-o but he's also talked about
China about governors in the state's not
doing enough for Democrats in Congress
not coming up with a good enough
legislative solution so that's the
reality but if you look back Donald
Trump himself at one point was praising
China's response for it saying that they
were being transparent so the same thing
he's accusing the w-h-o of right now he
actually engaged in similar type of
language earlier on this year and and
viewers may remember Anthony that Donald
Trump wanted to reopen the US by Easter
that deadline clearly has been and gone
is there a timeline now well actually
what we're talking about right now is a
May 1st deadline that's what Donald
Trump appears to want that's what he's
telling his administration officials to
try to come up with but the reality is
is going to be very difficult to open
and the whole nation on May 1st the
conditions in various states are very
different and the bottom line is that
state governors are the ones who close
things down they're the ones who are
going to have to decide when to open
things up again so that's why you're
seeing various associations of states
like California Oregon and Washington on
the west coast New York Pennsylvania
Connecticut Massachusetts and others on
the East Coast trying to figure out the
best way to do it and they're looking at
a step-by-step process where they can
control the spread of the virus so they
don't get some sort of a renewed peak in
the spread and more deaths more
hospitalizations when they start to ease
back on this restrictions but I think
all the politicians are looking at
November looking at the election and
they realize that they want the economy
to try to rebound at some point soon
yeah fascinating the power balance is
going on there Anthony zurka thank you
very much for that right let's assess
the substance now Donald Trump's
criticism of the w-h-o how valid is it
well I'm gonna get some help here
thankfully from a familiar face
there is Ross Atkins has been off
outside sauce for the last few weeks a
breeze
from his home I'd look into this side of
the air story a good see you again rods
yeah I could see Lewis thanks very much
yes my family and I are going to be
staying at home for a while so it's good
to be back on outside source if not in
the newsroom quite yet and let's have a
detailed look at the wh o and Donald
Trump's criticism of it starting with
the World Health Organization itself
it's UN agency it's based in Geneva and
it has an annual budget of over two and
a half billion dollars now that comes in
part from member countries and in part
from philanthropic donations America is
the largest donor it pledges four
hundred million dollars annually though
I should say it's an arrears on its
contributions the second largest
contributor well that's the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation and there's now
a sharp divide between these top two
donors we have Donald Trump saying US
money is suspended because the w-h-o has
worsened the outbreak with mismanagement
and has covered for Chinese mistakes and
then we have Bill Gates well he's been
tweeting this arguing that mr. Trump's
move is dangerous and adding that if the
wh OHS work is stopped no other
organization can replace it now clearly
the two men don't agree here but their
analyses don't necessarily cancel each
other out as you might imagine and
here's why it's certainly true that some
of the w-h-o statements have raised a
few eyebrows for example in January he
said there was no evidence that kovat 19
could be transmitted from human to human
but it was already happening also in
late January it declared a public health
emergency but said severe travel
restrictions were not necessary
countries then introduced them all the
same it also said there was no need for
all of us to wear face masks and then
weeks later said it was reviewing that
advice we could also say it's true that
the w-h-o has been a few civ in its
praise for china's response and there's
been no equivalent severity in its
criticism of China's failure to speak
publicly when it first knew of the virus
or of China's intimidation of doctors
who did speak out now critics say the
w-h-o has been too soft on China for
political reasons but
uho says no it has to be diplomatic to
get China to cooperate it is also worth
pointing out the w-h-o advises member
states it can't instruct them the most
crucial decisions taken during this
crisis haven't been taken by the w-h-o
but by individual countries such as
China and of course the u.s. there are a
couple of additional issues here the
first is America's place on the
international stage this is a tweet we
should take note of from the former US
ambassador to the UN Samantha power she
served under President Obama he or she
is imagining President Putin thinking of
Russia's efforts to help Donald Trump
win the 2016 election and seeing this
w-h-o decision she suggests this latest
decision is a destruction of us
credibility beyond mr. Putin's wildest
dreams but actually this decision sits
comfortably within Donald Trump's
foreign policy he's taken the u.s. out
of the Paris climate agreement the Iran
nuclear deal
a major free trade deal with Pacific
nations and its military commitments in
northern Syria the list is a long one
and we know he's suspicious of
supranational bodies like the w-h-o and
he's suspicious of how much money that
America pays in his eyes to sort out
other people's problems
so this w-h-o decision is entirely in
line with that thinking so if we combine
all of that with those political
calculations ahead of the US election
that Lewis you were discussing with
Anthony cerca we start to get towards a
better understanding of this
announcement from the president well
thanks so much for that Roz important to
dig into the nuance there fascinating
stuff thanks very much