ACTION ALERT: Trump Halting Funding for the World Health Organization
(April 18, 2020) — Cutting funding to the WHO while we’re in the throes of a global pandemic? Unthinkable. Yet this is just another example of the Trump administration putting politics before people’s lives.
This is bad: The American Medical Association called it “dangerous.” Richard Horton, the editor-in-chief of The Lancet medical journal, called it “a crime against humanity… Every scientist, every health worker, every citizen must resist and rebel against this appalling betrayal of global solidarity.”
We’ve got to act quickly if we’re going to stop this. Trump may think he’s a king, but Congress still has immense power to keep the funding flowing.
Let’s be honest — has the WHO made mistakes during this and past crises? Absolutely.
Like many global organizations, the WHO is badly in need of reform so that its priorities cannot be swayed by the whim of donors — including the shifting politics of world leaders.
But, Trump’s unilateral decision to cut funding won’t help with that. In fact, it is only likely to make those problems worse — any budget shortfall during this crisis will likely require the WHO to ask for emergency funding from billionaires, oligarchs, and autocrats that comes with strings attached.
There’s no way that this decision will make any of us — in the United States or beyond — safer. And it’s quite literally one of the last things we need in the face of this pandemic.
ACTION: Call on Congress NOW: Safeguard WHO Funding!
Trump’s decision to punish the WHO is not about public health, it’s about politics and deflection from his administration’s absolute failures to respond with leadership in this crisis.
Trump’s cronies previously eliminated critical pandemic response efforts and his administration has consistently called for funding cuts to major health programs in a disastrous reorganization of priorities that have left us all more vulnerable.
We, through Congress, can hold Trump accountable and remind him that the president’s job isn’t about protecting poll numbers — it’s about protecting people.
Enough is enough — let’s draw a line and safeguard WHO funding.
Thank you for working for peace,
Stephen and the Win Without War team
