U.S. President Donald Trump, who critics say was slow to act to slow the spread of COVID-19, accused the World Health Organization of concealing information about the coronavirus at early stages costing what he said were "thousands" of lives.
Gavino Garay has more.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING: "Today I'm instructing my administration to halt the funding of the World Health Organization." U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled the funding from the major international health body pending an investigation into what he said was the mismanagement and alleged covering up of information that exacerbated the spread of the coronavirus.
The move comes as Trump faces criticism for his response at countering the virus in the U.S. Critics accuse Trump of downplaying its severity and being slow to take action.
But Trump Tuesday laid the blame on the WHO, and said the United States, the largest donor to the WHO, had deep concerns about whether its funding was being put to the best use.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING: "The reality is that the WHO failed to adequately obtain, vet and share information in a timely and transparent fashion...The WHO failed to investigate credible reports from sources in Wuhan, that conflicted directly with the Chinese government's official accounts.
There was credible information to suspect human to human transmission in December 2019, which should have spurred the WHO to investigate and investigate immediately.
" Trump accused the WHO of taking China's "assurances" at face value.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING: "WHO's reliance on China's disclosures likely caused a twenty fold increase in cases worldwide." Trump himself praised China's transparency on the virus in January, something he denied doing tuesday.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING: "I don't talk about China's transparency..." In the United States, there are over 600,000 reported coronavirus cases -- three times more than in any other country -- and more than 25,000 fatalities, according to a Reuters tally.