SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Trump threatens to take US out of WHO entirely and stop all funding:
In a letter to WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Trump alleged that "the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world" and that the WHO must "demonstrate independence from China."
"[I]f the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization," Trump wrote. "I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America's interests."
Trump posted the letter on Twitter, writing, "It is self-explanatory!"
Trump has repeatedly denied any responsibility for COVID-19 spreading in America and said on April 14 that the US would temporarily halt funding the WHO until his administration completed a review of the group's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump's letter yesterday said that "review has confirmed many of the serious concerns I raised last month and identified others that the World Health Organization should have addressed, especially the World Health Organization's alarming lack of independence from the People's Republic of China."
[...] Trump's letter then lists a series of claims, the first being that the WHO "consistently ignored credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in early December 2019 or even earlier, including reports from the Lancet medical journal."
The Lancet quickly issued a response explaining that Trump is wrong. "This statement is factually incorrect," The Lancet said. "The Lancet published no report in December, 2019, referring to a virus or outbreak in Wuhan or anywhere else in China." The Lancet's first reports on the topic were published on January 24, 2020 the statement said.
[...] Trump's letter yesterday said, "Throughout this crisis, the World Health Organization has been curiously insistent on praising China for its alleged 'transparency.'" Trump's letter did not mention that Trump himself praised China for its "transparency" on January 24 or that Trump repeatedly praised China for its coronavirus response throughout February.
[...] Health experts say Trump's travel ban had little effect on the pandemic's spread. Trump continued to downplay the virus's severity by comparing it to the flu as late as March 24, nearly two months after the WHO declared a global health emergency. Trump has also fought state governors over their cautious approaches to reopening the economy.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @04:58AM (9 children)
All treaties must be approved by the US Senate, the Pissant, by himself, has no power to negate properly approved international treaties. You may be confused by the fact that some things the petulant ignoramous Precedent has taken the US out of, have not in fact been international treaties. The WHO is, so Trump has no more power to pull out than his tiny hands did before Eric was concieved. Ewwww.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mykl on Thursday May 21 2020, @06:20AM (8 children)
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @01:14PM (2 children)
By making the US such a health hazard that Mexico wants to keep the Americans out?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @03:59PM (1 child)
Mexico is being ravaged by coronavirus, with the death toll being three times the official reported rate. Even worse, their capital city has a terrible death and infection rate. Don't have time to post links. Google brings this all up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @07:49PM
My local Supermarket finally has some Toilet paper on the shelves, Mexican Toilet Paper! Thank you, Mexico!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by meustrus on Thursday May 21 2020, @04:10PM (4 children)
[citation needed]
As far as I can tell, Trump claimed victory on getting Mexico to "pay" for the border wall because of the USMCA. Which involves no payments of any kind, direct or indirect, for a border wall. Sort of like how he declared victory on the economy after the tax bill was passed, even though the GDP growth he believed would happen was still entirely theoretical and has since proven to be exactly as overoptimistic as most economists had said all along.
Which is not to say the USMCA is not an achievement. It is. NAFTA sucked. I'm not sure USMCA doesn't suck, but it certainly sucks less. All I'm saying is that giving Trump credit for "manag[ing] to get Mexico to agree to pay for the border wall" takes several leaps of faith. Public policy ought to be about facts, not faith.
Funny. It used to be Democrats were the only ones engaged in wishful thinking.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @07:13PM (3 children)
Your sarcasm detector needs adjusting.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Thursday May 21 2020, @07:50PM (1 child)
You say that as if I'm the only one who doesn't read it as sarcastic. This is a public forum. I'm not just responding to the original poster, I'm also responding for the benefit of all the randos that wander by nodding their heads.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday May 21 2020, @11:05PM
You're right meustrus - I should have added sarcasm tags to my post, though it does reduce the humor a bit. I had hoped that my views on Trump in my first point would make it clear that point 2 was a joke, but there will be randos out there (Rando Calrissian, the macho-man Rando Savage, Marlin Rando etc) that will interpret the way they want to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @08:39PM
Poe's Law Trumps most things.
See what I did there?