By Eric Li
Today, on May 18th, 2020, President Donald Trump announced that he was ending all United States’ funding to the World Health Organization. In a tweet, he posted, “On April 14, 2020, I suspended United States contributions to the World Health Organization pending an investigation by my Administration of the organization’s failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” President Trump goes on by saying that if the World Health Organization does not, “commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days,” he will turn the temporary freeze into a permanent freeze.
Wow, there is a lot to delve into regarding this developing story. First of all, President Trump, throughout the letter to the WHO continuously slams China for being “anything but transparent” during the COVID-19 pandemic. What the President fails to realize is that, at the start of this pandemic, China was enacting drastic changes to stop the spread of the virus. From locking down the city of Wuhan, which has a population of 11.8 million, for ten weeks to mass-producing masks testing kits and personal protective equipment (PPE), the Chinese response to the pandemic was nothing short of a miracle. Obviously, there is speculation that the Chinese government has kept secret important pieces of information, such as the true number of total deaths, but its attempts to prevent the spread of the virus have been effective. So effective that China is starting to return to a sense of normalcy while other countries, especially the United States, are still coping with the virus and its impacts.
Next, the President continues to portray this idea that the Chinese government is reportedly colluding with the WHO to downplay the impact of the coronavirus. On the second page of his letter, the President claims that on January 21,p2020, “President Xi Ji Ping reportedly pressured [the WHO] to not declare the coronavirus outbreak an emergency.” This is in fact, a horrible understanding of the steps that the WHO organization takes to determine if whether or not a disease is an emergency. In order for the WHO to classify an outbreak as an emergency, sufficient evidence needs to show that the outbreak poses an imminent threat to the health of the international community. Shortly after January, 21, reports of the number of global COVID-19 cases was 581. Although early on, the number of cases was much smaller than the average number of annual global flu cases; therefore, at the time, describing the COVID-19 pandemic as an emergency, understandably, was overblowing the entire situation. Without knowing the information the WHO knows now, the choice of action that they took by not describing the coronavirus pandemic as an emergency was the right course of action. In addition, before the temporary freeze, the United States was the WHO’s top benefactor, providing 14% of the WHO’s funds. This funding was far greater than any other nation’s funding toward the organization. The WHO relied on the United States to fund research, provide aid, and fine a vaccine/cure for the coronavirus. The only thing that the President has done here is alienate a fellow superpower and elongate the pain felt by the American people.
Finally, President Trump is changing the international political climate and America’s image by sending this letter. Trump is obviously trying to find a winner and a loser during this pandemic. Trump sees China as a country that has successfully combated this global pandemic so much so that they have started to re-open. While at the same time, his own country is seeing its number of deaths and cases start to rise due to its states opening too early. Instead of acting upon the domestic issues, the President, as he does too often, chooses to point fingers. By ending temporarily freezing the United States’ funding the WHO, he does not only increase the amount of time Americans can expect to wait for vaccine/cure, but he is using this pandemic to push his own global nationalistic agenda. Just like how he backed out of NATO or the Paris Agreement, President Trump is showing that he is no longer willing to be engaged in global issues unless he gets something in return. This, already, seems awfully too familiar. At the end of October 2019, President Trump announced that he was bringing the majority of the American troops stationed in Syria home only for the void to be filled by the Russian military. In this situation, on the other hand, only time will tell who will fill the void. In short, this is a dangerous game that the President is playing with too many lives at risk. Furthermore, Trump is also trying to arouse his supporters for his upcoming re-election campaign. Going against Joe Biden, who is especially popular among the African-Americans of the South, President Trump has clearly realized that to hold onto his presidency, he needs rally support from his main supporters: nationalists. Actions such as these will most definitely resonate with his voter group and, as a result, will increase his chances of re-election; however, what he has to realize now is that he needs to set aside his current nationalistic agenda and work with the Chinese government to end this crisis so that Americans can head to work again before the virus’s wound because too deep to heal from.
In the end, by sending this letter, President Trump is doing more harm than good. At this rate, the international community will start to see China as the new superpower that has filled the void left by the United States as a result of Trump’s arrogance.
The Lost Canadian 