The United Nations has responded to the US President Donald Trump after he announced that America will cut its half a billion funding to the WHO because it is mishandling and covering up the COVID-19 pandemic, Aljazeera reports.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement said:
Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences
His sentiments were shared by Dr Nahid Bhadelia who is an infectious diseases specialist and the medical director of the Special Pathogens Unit at Boston University who said this on social media:
Cutting 15 percent (US contribution) of WHO budget during the biggest projected pandemic of the last century is an absolute disaster. WHO is a global technical partner, the platform through which sovereign countries share data/technology, our eyes on the global scope of this pandemic
Meanwhile, Trump is also under fire for covering up the pandemic in his country as the US became the world’s newest epicentre with over half a million cases and over 23 000 deaths.
More: Aljazeera