German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced support on Thursday for the embattled World Health Organization (W.H.O.) while speaking to fellow Group of Seven (G7) leaders after President Donald Trump halted U.S. funding for the United Nations-backed organization.
German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said Merkel reiterated her call for “strong and coordinated international response” to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic and expressed “full support to the W.H.O.”
The Trump administration released a separate readout of the call in which it highlighted Trump’s criticism of the W.H.O. for its “lack of transparency and chronic mismanagement” of the crisis, saying that “the leaders called for a thorough review and reform process.”
President Trump announced Tuesday that he has halted funding for the W.H.O. while his administration reviews the body’s response to the outbreak.
“America and the world have chosen to rely on the W.H.O. for accurate, timely, and independent information to make important public health recommendations and decisions,” the president stated in his Rose Garden remarks. “If we cannot trust that this is what we will receive from the W.H.O., our country will be forced to find other ways to work with other nations to achieve public health goals.”
“We spend $500 million a year,” he added, noting that China only pledges up to $40 million per year.
As Breitbart News reported, “The W.H.O. claimed in January that ‘preliminary investigations’ by China found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus in Wuhan. Further, the organization called on countries to keep borders open despite labeling the massive outbreak a global emergency.”
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