UNITED States President Donald Trump is threating to pull his country’s funding to the World Health Organization (WHO).
He has written a letter to the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) outlining a 30-day deadline for the body to commit to “substantive improvements” or risk losing millions and US membership altogether.
Addressed to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, it criticises stages of the body’s response since December, the BBC is reporting.
Trump called the UN’s health body a “puppet of China,” earlier on Monday.
Trump has himself been criticised for his handling of the pandemic, has blamed China for trying to cover up the outbreak and has accused the WHO of failing to hold Beijing to account, the BBC stated.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Mr Trump was trying to mislead the public, smear China and “shift the blame for (Trump’s) own incompetent response”.
The US has more than 1.5 million of the world’s 4.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, with more than 90,000 deaths, the BBC stated.
