Trump suspends U.S. funding for the World Health Organization
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, ordered on Tuesday, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, to freeze the funds that his government provides to the World Health Organization (WHO), the agency that leads the response against the COVID-19. Trump launched this new fight when the cases of the COVID-19 are around 615,000 in the United States after adding some 27,000 in the last 24 hours and the deaths exceed 26,000 after adding this Tuesday a record number of 2,400, the highest in a single day.
Trump had already made public last week his dissatisfaction with the WHO over its management of the coronavirus, but acknowledged that cutting off funding to the agency at the height of the pandemic was perhaps not the best course of action. A week later, Trump did not hesitate to make a decision that recalls his departure from UNESCO, the UN Human Rights Council, the Paris Agreement on climate change or the Iran nuclear deal.
“Today I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump announced during a press conference at the White House. Trump justified his decision by using the WHO’s opposition to the closure of borders to combat the spread of the virus. He also blamed the organization for not having acted sooner and for having not only trusted, but also having “praised” the Chinese government, something he also did weeks ago.
“With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have deep concerns whether America’s generosity has been put to the best use possible," he added, recalling that Washington is the main donor to the WHO, contributing between 400 and 500 million dollars a year.
New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States, announced the inclusion of 3,700 untested deaths of the coronavirus in the official death toll of the pandemic, which was 7,900.
These are people who died at home and had symptoms of the disease, but at no time did they go to hospital or were tested for COVID-19.
With the inclusion of these 3,700 people, the balance of deaths from coronavirus in New York City alone reaches 11,000, although the exact data has not yet been updated. With the inclusion of these 3,700 people, the number of deaths from coronaviruses in New York City alone has reached 11,000, although the exact figures have not yet been updated.
Trump reached a $25 billion rescue agreement on Tuesday with major US passenger airlines, one of the sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The rescue money comes from the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package agreed and approved in late March by the White House and the Congress, the largest in U.S. history.
The airlines that receive this money -American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines or Southwest Airlines, among others- will have to keep 90% of their staff on the payroll and hand over to the government part of their property in the form of equity or priority debt.
South Dakota, a state with only a few cases of coronavirus until a few days ago and one of the few without containment measures, has seen the pandemic enter its borders. The outbreak broke out at the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, which is responsible for 5% of pork products consumed in the United States and where 300 of its 3,700 employees have tested positive for coronavirus.
The plant has closed, threatening the U.S. pork supply chain, but the state's governor, Republican Kristi Noem, is resisting a containment order and claims that "South Dakota is not New York".
Her party colleague and Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken, who called for a "today and now" lockdown for South Dakota, took a different view. "We’re in the early innings of this thing in Sioux Falls" TenHaken said, which concentrates most of the 988 cases - 120 in the last 24 hours - of South Dakota, where six deaths have already been recorded.