US President wrong to suspend agency’s funding

Donald Trump at a press briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, US, April 14, 2020. [Reuters]

World leaders are understandably angry with US President Donald Trump’s over his decision to halt funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The President accuses the agency of mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.

On this he could be right or wrong.

But he is downright wrong to stop the funding. Notably, the health agency is the one spearheading the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Any disruption to the agency at this time could have far-reaching ramifications to the world, which has already lost more than 125,000 people to Covid-19. More than two million others have contracted the virus.

This is not the time for leaders to start pointing fingers as Trump is doing. It is time to intensify the war against Covid-19 by learning from each other, by helping each other. Doing otherwise will only embolden the enemy to inflict more pain.

This, however, does not mean we should ignore the US President’s allegations of WHO missteps. But they must be put them on the back burner for now. In fact, it is wrong for Trump to put up a fight at a time when his country is losing hundreds of lives daily. He should focus his energy on defeating Covid-19 first.

Whether WHO slept on the job should be part of the post-mortem—after Covid-19 is annihilated. Then, the world can take action on those found culpable. Going on the war path and cutting back on funding will only slow down the current fight and make the innocent across the world cannon fodder for this pandemic.