Image

WHILE US ABANDONING WHO! (Dr. Mathew Joys, Las Vegas)

Published on 16 June, 2020
WHILE US ABANDONING  WHO! (Dr. Mathew Joys, Las Vegas)
Most of the underdeveloped countries were shocked about President’s sudden announcement that the United States is leaving and discontinuing its funding to World Health Organization (WHO). Why is it so devastating to the worldwide public health scenario.?

President Trump has been strongly criticized  for the delay in handling the spread of Corona virus in the US; in turn Trump blames WHO for its  slow response in raising the alarm over the global threat of the Pandemic Covid-19.  Due to the fact that WHO is possessed by Chinese domination, Trump  named WHO as “ China-centric”, as they mismanaged and covered up the spread of corona virus, which is suspected to have been leaked and started spreading from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

The world so far was considering the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Canada and Italy are the real representatives of world’s advanced economies; and they decide the fate of the world. President Trump at least concords that there are emerging countries like China, Australia, India,  Brazil, and South Korea, which are emerging countries to be considered to promote democratic values for the betterment of the world. In front of the Covid pandemic; all nations have knelt down, in controlling the spread or finding an effective vaccine to stop its forward journey

WHO was founded as the UN global health body in 1948 with the ultimate mandate of promoting global health, protect the human beings against infectious diseases and to serve the vulnerable from health emergencies. We have found its immediate responses to combat communicable diseases like cholera, yellow fever, plague, swine flu, HIV, plague, Ebola etc. it is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within UN for their 194 member countries. But why they failed when the new enemy started engulfing the whole world?

Especially when the whole world is looking to the US for leadership, and the so called leader is leading only in their daily death rate; US also lost its supremacy, as they were uncontrollable just like any other nation. But to a great extent Americans think that Trump is not the right leader to do anything during critical situations. And they join with the media in accusing Trump for the wrong way he has been handling the issue of Pandemic Covid, killing already about 120,000 innocent Americans, and still continuing.

Looking back to the 72 years of the history of WHO, the US has been the largest sponsor. America has off late contributed $893 million, 15% of the entire budget and the contribution is more than twice as much as any other country so far done. Hence USA has been the center of importance of the public health system all over the world

USA has an assessed contribution of $237 million as its membership dues. But America generosity has provided with additional $656 million during 2018-19. The contributions were earmarked specifically as for Polio (166M), Health & Nutrition Services (121M), Vaccines for Preventable diseases (58M), Tuberculosis (41M), Emergency Preparedness (36M), HIV & Hepatitis (34M), Infectious Hazard Management (32M), Leadership & Governances (30M), Prevention & Control of Outbreaks (27M), Reproductive, Material, newborn & Child Health (27 M) etc.

Even during the Covid-19 pandemic spreading in America, Trump has liberally helped many other countries, in spite of his helplessness to harness the situation with lack of enough masks and PPE, and no panacea or vaccine is invented to curb the unexpected enemy. US helped 64 of the world’s most-at-risk countries with a bulk foreign assistance of $274 million.

USA as the leader of health services has failed to arrest the vast spread, as WHO or CDC had failed to alert the world. Trump believes that WHO was hiding the facts for the sake of China. In spite of the vast support to WHO and UN, US did not get any first hand information, and China played a dirty game.

Trump was blamed that he could not help the Americans or the rest of the world.  Whether WHO or his advisors failed to lead Trump for a speedier-actions, Trump was largely without any coherent scientific inputs into his immediate plans and policy making. His slow response, even complacency, in the early days of the epidemic exploding in China is sympathetically “understandable”. Media accused him that “A pandemic plan was in place. Trump abandoned it – and science- in the face of Covid-19.”

On May 29th, Trump announced his hard decision of terminating the relationship and support to WHO, though it may need at least a year to fully discontinue membership and terminate agreement with WHO. President Trump’s rhetoric is impacting the whole world, more than his decision to quit supporting Paris Agreement on climate change.

Keeping up the pressure for these kinds of economic changes, will lead the world to more perilous situations; nevertheless the support of the superpower cannot be ignored. Making the accord work without United States will require other developing nations like China and India to come forward, but it will be a limited support. The real impact of this withdrawal from WHO, will be visible outside USA. US Scientists and Public Health experts will have limited access to the communication on important global health issues. Just like the data from China was not  available to US or other leading nations.

“Trump’s decision is extremely problematic” said Devi Sridharan, the chairperson of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, as Trump’s assault on the reliability of WHO data and early warning systems. For instance, some of the nations have cut back their funding in recent years and the effects are already visible as Ebola virus is still not contained in West Africa.

Faced with reduced income, WHO will be compelled to scale back its budget. It may have to slash down its Human Resources. Ultimately the world is going to face severe consequences, if any epidemic or pandemic is unknowingly crept into any part of our world in the near future. Will WHO be equipped to sound the alarming siren sufficiently earlier to bring the outbreak under control, or a much severe suit follow than we face now with Covid-19!

 
********

Dr Mathew Joys is Las Vegas based Kerala origin Journalist and Columnist in various media and a published author. He is currently Executive Editor of Jaihind Vartha, Associate Editor of Expressherald and MalayaliFM and Vice Chairman of Indo American Press Club.

Join WhatsApp News
Mathew Joseph 2020-06-16 23:59:35
First of all I personally appreciate you for the article. In fact I was also ignorant about the Role of China in WHO. So you are of the Conclusion this juncture will affect Republicans?
Anthappan 2020-06-17 14:42:57
Every argument must be evidence-based rather than making assumptions. Third world countries are not honest in disclosing the truth. They have a tendency to hide things from others. It is just like Malayalees trying to hide their health issues from others. For example, in America, if people get sick, they come out and talk about it publically for helping others and eventually to benefit the community as a whole. But, many Malayalees never want to disclose it because other Malayalees will spread the news and says that it is because of that person's karma 'falam' or sin. If you take the leaders of different nations like America, Rusia, China, North Korea, and India, they are not straightforward and liers. Trump lies 8 times a day and never trust his intelligent community or purposely avoid them. It is proved time and again that there is no evidence that china purposely made this virus in a lab and shipped it out to the US. Historically viruses spread by animals and the wet market in China might have contributed to the spread of virus Trump knows that his base will believe any lies he tells because most of them don't care what science or intelligent community tells. The evangelicals and some of the Christian factions join Tump to spread the lies because they know by joining Trump they benefit. If anybody stands up and tells the truth, they are all liers and fake. Trump wants to win the election by telling the lie and blaming China, WHO, and cutting off the fund and jeopardizing the lives of many. He doesn't care how many people are going to die. He wants to win the election. Many people are going to get killed by his selfish and self-centered motive of clinging on to power. Those who are not awakened yet, be aware that he is preparing you guys for the doomsday. He isolated America from the rest of the nation and made her weak. Trump is ignoring the truth and his VP started celebrating the success in conquering the virus. By Getting off from Paris climate accord; Getting off from WHO; Weakening NATO, and building an 8-foot high chainlink fencing, t concrete wall, and sitting inside the Bunker he is going to make America great again. Wake up Trumpians and come to sense
A traitors confession 2020-06-17 17:21:09
He could have gone to the senate and told the truth. But he kept quite. It is the responsibility of people to vote Trump out and put all the enablers in Jail. "Former national security adviser John Bolton has leveled a stunning accusation against his former boss, claiming in his new book that President Donald Trump personally asked his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to help him win the 2020 US presidential election, according to an excerpt published by the Wall Street Journal Wednesday. One notable interaction described by Bolton was a meeting between the two leaders at the G-20 Summit in Osaka last June, where the US President "stunningly" turned the conversation to the upcoming 2020 election. The former national security adviser said Trump "stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome," adding that he "would print Trump's exact words, but the government's pre-publication review process has decided otherwise."
മലയാളത്തില്‍ ടൈപ്പ് ചെയ്യാന്‍ ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക