WHO missed call on coronavirus crisis, says Donald Trump

Donald Trump has threatened to freeze US funding to the World Health Organisation, saying the group had ‘missed the call’ on the coronavirus pandemic.

US President Donald Trump listens as senior adviser Ivanka Trump speaks at the White House on small business relief during the coronavirus crisis. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump has threatened to freeze US funding to the World Health Organisation, saying the international group had “missed the call” on the coronavirus pandemic.

The US President also played down the release of January memos from a senior adviser that represented an early warning of a possible pandemic, saying he had not seen them at the time.

But he turned his anger on the WHO on Wednesday AEST, first declaring that he would cut off US funding, then backtracking and saying he would “strongly consider­” such a move.

Mr Trump said the group had “called it wrong” on the virus and that the organisation was “very China-centric” in its approach, suggesting the WHO had gone along with Beijing’s efforts months ago to minimise the severity of the outbreak. The WHO has praised China for its transparency on the virus, even though there has been reason to believe that more people died of COVID-19 than the ­country’s official tally.

Throughout his presidency, Mr Trump has voiced scepticism ­towards many international organ­isations and has repeatedly heaped scorn on the WHO.

The WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency on Jan­uary 30, nearly a month before Mr Trump tweeted that “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA” and six weeks before he declared a national emergency.

The President continued on Wednesday to defend his actions in the early days of the crisis, playing down memos by Peter Navarro, a senior White House adviser, that were made public this week.

In the late January memos, the most direct warning as yet uncovered­ in the upper levels of the Trump administration, Mr Navarro warned that the crisis could cost the US trillions of dollars­ and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death.

Mr Trump said on Wednesday that he was not aware of the memos in January but that he unilatera­lly followed some of their recommendations.

A second memo from Mr ­Navarro was addressed directly to the President and said that up to two million Americans could die.

A day later, Mr Trump tweeted that the outbreak was “very much under control” and that the stockmarket was “starting to look very good to me”.

AP, The Times