Like the band, WHO SHOULD BREAK UP!

Weekly Opinion Editorial

THE WHO SHOULD BREAK UP!

by Steve Fair

     President Trump has directed a 60 day halt to payments by the United States to the World Health Organization (WHO), pending review of how it handled warnings about COVID-19 and China.  The president maintains COVID-19 could have been contained at its source and spared lives had the WHO done a better job investigating reports coming out of China.  During a conference call with the G-7 leaders, President Trump reiterated his complaints about the WHO, but after the call several of the G-7 leaders issued statements in support of WHO.  The president did say the U.S. will continue to engage with the WHO to pursue meaningful reforms.  Three thoughts:

    First, who/what is the World Health Organization?  It is an agency of the United Nations, charged with responsible for international public health.  It was established in April 1948 and take credit for the eradication of smallpox and  the near eradication of polio  The WHO has 6 regional offices, employs 7,000 people in 149 countries, and has a $4.2 billion dollar annual budget, voluntarily funded by member countries.  The U.S. contributes 15% of the total funding. China contributes about half that. Another of their funding sources is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which provides about 10% of the WHO’s annual funding.  Another major source of funding is Rotary International.    The WHO has not been without controversy.  According to the Associated Press, the organization spends about $200 million annually on travel expenses, which is more than it spends to tackle mental health, HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria combined.  A past Director/General of WHO once stayed in a $1,000 per night hotel room while visiting West Africa. 

     Second, President Trump is right to withhold funding.  Holding the WHO accountable for their basic mission is not unreasonable.  The president said the world depends on the WHO to work with member countries to make sure accurate information about health threats are shared in a timely manner.  Clearly, China did not provide accurate or timely information and the WHO should have sounded the alarm earlier, but they seemed unwilling to dispute China’s account of COVID-19.  That caused the virus to remain unchecked for weeks, which resulted in more deaths.

     Third, health care has become very political.  No place is it seen more than at the WHO’s response to COVID-19, but it’s also seen every time you visit your doctor.  Instead of your physician making decisions on what your health needs are, lawmakers and insurance companies have mandated what can and can’t be done.  Instead of the WHO sounding the alarm to save lives, they folded to political pressure from China. 

     The WHO is nothing more than a ‘middleman’ that works with health organizations in member countries and then dissimilates information.  Perhaps there should be a health organization that works with those members, but the WHO has become an bloated bureaucracy that is overstaffed and fails to perform their most basic function and should break up like the band the WHO(who broke up in 1983).  President Trump is right to suspend funding, but unless reforms are made, that suspension should be permanent.