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Trump withdrawing from WHO and....

The Trump announcement that the US was withdrawing from the WHO is despicable to say the least.  What a vile decision to take at this time; the man is beyond insane!  
And, from the BBC's rolling news today,  Tens of millions of Americans are set to receive cheques for "unemployment benefit" as a response to the coronavirus outbreak.  The surprising news is that Trump's name will appear, for the first time ever, on every single check issued by the Internal Revenue Service. 
A truly dangerous and egomaniac despot.  

Ivonne Holliday ● 2246d14 Comments

Richard, you beat me to it!!  looool

Bunny Payne ● 2246d

Anyone know how much the UK contributes?Trump is a terrible man. I remember him from when I worked in NY years ago (I go back to Ivana). I remember an analyst at a broking firm in Philadelphia who specialised in the casino sector wrote a piece saying the Taj Mahal, a newly opened third casino in Trump's Atlantic City empire, would cannibalize the earnings of the other two. Trump went mad and demanded the firm fire him and to their shame they did. Of course, the whole lot went bust. Something Trump prefers to forget.

Elizabeth Balsom ● 2246d

I am glad I am British. He thinks his EGO is more important than the WHOLE WORLD.Lyn

Lyn Clark ● 2246d

Richard. Unfortunately, the wake may drag down all the other ships near it.

Michael Ixer ● 2246d

It is excellent — and sad at the same time.  True reflection of Trump's personality.

Ivonne Holliday ● 2246d

Hi Ivonne. I've been trying to get to the bottom of that. There seem to be different stories regarding what Trump did to Obama's plans and what cuts he announced tk the CDC budgets were actioned. This looks an interesting article although I've only had time to skim it. I suspect although Trump's aggressive/belligerent style doesn't help handle this type of issue which requires thought, knowledge, analysis and cooperation I thing the US political system where there isn't a truly independent civil service and some responsibilities are split between federal and state administrations doesn't help either. This isn't something that corporate lawyers and accountants can resolve with litigation and chapter-11 deals ...https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/11/america-two-decade-failure-prepare-coronavirus-179574

Michael Ixer ● 2246d

Richard Carter ● 2246d

Hello Michael, Also interesting to note that, in December 2014 when addressing the National Institutes of Health regarding the outbreak of Ebola in Africa, Obama stressed the importance of investing in research for the long term future.  If and when another strain of flu, in five years or a decade, cropped up they would be able to catch it.  It would be an investment, not an insurance policy. https://www.fic.nih.gov/News/GlobalHealthMatters/november-december-2014/Pages/ebola-funding-president-obama-nih-visit.aspx I suppose this was stopped as soon as Trump became president, just because it was an Obama policy.....

Ivonne Holliday ● 2246d

Hello Elizabeth, I checked on WHO's website and the assessed contributions, based on the wealth of each country, for the 2020-2021 biennium were, for the USA USD115,766,922 and for China USD57,439,805 https://www.who.int/about/finances-accountability/funding/revised-2019-invoice/usa_en.pdf?ua=1 https://www.who.int/about/finances-accountability/funding/revised-2019-invoice/chn_en.pdf?ua=1 Also, please look at the link posted by Michael Ixer under Bill Gates for POTUS posting, which is https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/bill-gates-condemns-donald-trump-for-suspending-who-funding/ In this article, Trump said that the US funding of USD 400,000,000 per year should be suspended.  In February it cut its annual contribution from USD 122.6 million to USD 57.9 million.  I do not understand where the difference between the sum quoted by Trump and the actual contributions comes from. WHO confirmed that, in fact, China had contributed USD76,000,000 plus USD10,000,000 of voluntary contributions in 2018-2019.

Ivonne Holliday ● 2246d

This from today’s Express (Australian edition), Wednesday April, 15th 2020: Under the WHO's 2018-19 biennium budget, the United States was required to pay $237 million - known as an assessed contribution, which is appropriated by Congress - and also made some $656 million in voluntary contributions that were tied to specific programs.According to the WHO website, China's contribution for 2018-2019 was almost $76 million in assessed contributions and some $10 million in voluntary funding.Jim. Melbourne.

James Slade ● 2246d

What a fool Trump is! Why on earth does anyone vote for him?

Caroline Whitehead ● 2246d

Interesting how Obama, CDC, WHO et all managed to cooperate and contain the Ebola outbreak in 2014-16? China and WHO may have made mistakes, rescinding funding now when places in Africa, who will be dependent on WHO support, need help isn't likely to help anyone.

Michael Ixer ● 2246d

The US has been by far the largest donor to WHO I wonder how much China contributes.

Elizabeth Balsom ● 2246d

I hear that Covid-19 is getting concerned that Trump is scaring more people than the virus is. Not the sort of p!ssing contest that we need.

David Ainsworth ● 2246d