Donald Trump accuses WHO of "mismanagement" of the epidemic and stops funding

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Donald Trump announced Tuesday April 14 the suspension of the American contribution to the WHO, while the world is bending under the effects of a global pandemic of coronavirus which continues to kill thousands of people every day.

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The United States is the largest donor to the World Health Organization (WHO), with more than $ 400 million a year. On Tuesday April 14, Washington decided to cut him off, as it had threatened to do a week ago . Time to assess its role " in the mismanagement and concealment of the spread of the coronavirus, " said the American president.

He criticized the UN agency for aligning itself with China's positions, which Washington accuses of having initially concealed the gravity of the virus when it first appeared there in December. Which, he said, prevented the epidemic from being contained " at its source with very few deaths ".

► Read also: WHO declares international emergency facing coronavirus

WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week asked President Trump not to " politicize " the virus by carrying out his threat to cut off US funding. It is now done.

WHO, a guiding role for State health policy

The republican billionaire, who does not hide his contempt for multilateral organizations , did not hesitate to take action when his country is the most bereaved by coronavirus, with 25,500 dead and more than 600,000 cases of contamination saved.

Four months after the virus appeared, the pandemic has killed nearly 125,000 people worldwide. And despite a slight slowdown in Europe and the United States, it continues to kill several thousand people a day , and to spread to countries so far little affected.

WHO plays a key role in guiding governments in search of the fragile balance between continuing the fight against the disease and relaunching an activity that has come to a complete stop. She warned that the coronavirus would remain a threat " until the development and distribution of a safe and effective vaccine ", which can take more than a year.

► Read also: Chloroquine frenzy: WHO warns against self-medication

Global recession

" The risk of re-introduction and resurgence of Covid-19 will continue ", especially in the event of uncontrolled release, warned Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. However, deconfinement is eagerly awaited by more than half of humanity, cloistered at home at the request of the authorities, with an exacerbation of social inequalities. In a poor suburb of Cape Town, for example, the South African police dispersed confined residents by rubber bullets, furious at not receiving food.

But the end of the restrictions is also necessary to limit the economic damage. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Tuesday that this crisis " unlike any other " would cause a global recession of at least 3% this year, or even much more if the containment measures are not lifted by here end of June. " It is very likely that this year the world economy will experience its worst recession since the Great Depression " of the 1930s, said IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath.

( AFP )

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• Donald trump
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