From The New York Times: Trump’s Deadly Search for a Scapegoat
If the president had listened to the World Health Organization, American lives would have been saved.
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF
Thousands of Americans would be alive today if President Trump had spent more time listening to the World Health Organization instead of trying to destroy it.
Trump’s announcement that he is halting American funding for the W.H.O. just as the world is facing a raging pandemic is a dangerous attempt to find a scapegoat for his own failings. It is like taking away a fire department’s trucks in the middle of a blaze.
Many Americans know nothing about the W.H.O., but its worldwide budget (of which the United States pays about one-fifth) is less than that of some American hospital centers. Yet it is charged with fighting Ebola and polio, saving children’s lives and keeping the world safe from pandemics like this one.