The World Health Organization on Wednesday pushed back against comments by President Trump that the group is “very China-centric,” and said that continuing work with China is vital for research to combat the virus around the world.
Mr. Trump on Tuesday criticized the organization in a tweet and said the organization “really blew it,” adding that he will review the U.S.’ funding for the United Nations-backed body.
Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior advisor to director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters in a virtual press conference Wednesday that it “was absolutely critical in the early part of this outbreak to have full access to everything possible, to get on the ground and work with the Chinese to understand this.”
“This is what we did with every other hard hit country like Spain and had nothing to do with China specifically,” he added.
Dr. Hans Kluge, the WHO’s Regional Director for Europe, during the briefing hit back on Mr. Trump’s suggestion to cut funding to the organization and insisted that because the world remains in the “acute phase of a pandemic … now is not the time to cut back on funding.”
The U.S. contributed more than $400 million to the WHO in 2019, according to Reuters, while the second largest contributor, China, contributed $44 million.
