As the outbreak of New Coronary Pneumonia (also known as Wuhan Pneumonia) caused by a new coronavirus in the Mainland continues, the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is responsible for coordinating global anti-epidemic action, is receiving bad news. In the new Donald Trump government budget, funding for WHO has been cut in half.
In Trump’s fiscal year 2021 budget, global health funding was cut by $ 3 billion, of which WHO’s annual funding was halved. In the fight against Wuhan pneumonia, a senior official said that an additional US $ 15 million would be allocated to the Global Health Security Program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
During the extraordinary period of the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak, it was surprising that the United States countered the reduction of WHO funding in the budget. In fact, the performance of the WHO in handling the epidemic was not outstanding, and was questioned to underestimate the epidemic. The WHO said that the proposal not to implement the tourism ban was not followed by many countries. Obviously, the relevant interpretation of the WHO failed to remove the doubts.
The WHO has undoubtedly contributed to the global health work, but scandals have been frequently reported in recent years, which have been revealed by the media. The travel expenses of WHO officials are staggering, and the public expenditures of staying in the hotels are even higher than the actual spending on health work such as fighting AIDS.