By: Genevieve Bigue, Emma Quanbeck, and Arissa Low
This website links to a timeline showing the comments of President Trump and The WHO that are in relation to the Coronavirus. To summarize, at a briefing on Feb 11, the director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “if the world doesn't want to wake up and consider this enemy virus as Public Enemy Number 1, [he doesn’t] think we will learn our lessons." He warned that Coronavirus is a threat to humans and that it should be everyone’s main priority.
Two days later on Feb 13, in an interview with Geraldo Rivera, President Trump declares that “"In our country, we only have, basically, 12 cases, and most of those people are recovering and some cases fully recovered. So it's actually less." According to the John Hopkins University Coronavirus data map, there were 13 cases then, but the data has shown that the cases have risen rapidly and significantly. As of April 18th, there are 722,761 cases confirmed in the US.
After the WHO raised the global risk from “high” to “very high” on February 28, President Trump stated to “just stay calm. It will go away." Later, after WHO officially labeled COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, Trump states “Easter is a very special day for me. And I see it sort of in that timeline that I'm thinking about. And I say, wouldn't it be great to have all of the churches full?". Weeks later, Trump begins to shame and criticize the WHO.
On April 14, President Trump said in a briefing at the White House: "Today I am instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus." He explained that because the US is the main sponsor of the WHO, it is imperative to “insist on full accountability...One of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations." He said that his administration will have the WHO under review for 60-90 days to investigate the organization's handling of the coronavirus crisis and pandemic.
Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. criticized Trump, stating, “Withholding funding for WHO in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century makes as much sense as cutting off ammunition to an ally as the enemy closes in." He added that although “WHO should have been stricter with China and called for travel restrictions earlier...it is performing essential functions and needs our strong support." He believes that Trump is not wanting to take responsibility for the mounting numbers of deaths in the US from the Coronavirus.
This event is relative to the global theme of “The relationship between the West/USA and the rest of the world.” The mounting tension and bad communication by China led to the World Health Organization's suspension of government funding. The WHO, a western associated group with its headquarters in DC, did not fulfill responsibilities to be strict with China, which led to the suspension.
Discussion Questions:
Do you think China withholding information was the primary reason for the quick escalation of COVID-19 in the US?
How do you think canceling the funding will affect the alleviation of COVID-19?
Sources:
Response to question 1:
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't believe China concealing important information about the coronavirus was the reason why the virus situation escalated so quickly. I think it's because of the people and their lack of awareness and seriousness. China had the first case of the coronavirus, yet they did not inform anyone about it. When they finally did, however, it was too late, as people in the US are already getting ill. China can be blamed for staring this pandemic in their country and other's, though it's really everyone's fault that it spret. The coronavirus requires a live host to survive, meaning that it spreads from 1 person to another through any form of contact. This also means that if we were to be completely isolated from others, the virus should eventually go away. Now, it's not only not dying down, but infecting more and more people. This, can only be blamed on us, for not taking the right precautions to protect ourselves from the virus.
Furthermore, I feel like the virus appearing in other countries was only a matter of time, and not about China. If the virus was to be originated in a country where China is, it probably could also "originate" again at a different place or country, with a similar environment. However, blaming China is understandable because they refused to share their intelligence.
Do you think China withholding information was the primary reason for the quick escalation of COVID-19 in the US?
ReplyDeleteIn the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, there will be plenty of blame to go around everywhere. China had reason for its lack of transparency back in December when the new virus was initially identified. Why would they want to expose what was really going on in Wuhan and risk international embarrassment? And how could they ever know at that time that it was highly contagious? Certainly China’s initial withholding of information was a major reason for the widespread transmission of the coronavirus, however, other nations are equally accountable as well. Trump’s downplay of the risk in February gave the public a false sense of security. Scapegoating the WHO by halting much needed funds is Trump’s feeble attempt to change the narrative of accountability. Truth is, the rapid spread of COVID-19 is the direct result of the failure of our world leaders.
I feel that canceling funding for WHO will negatively affect the effort to alleviate the spread of COVID-19. The lack of funding will limit the amount of resources to help fight against the pandemic. It also sends a message that the COVID-19 situation is not as serious as it actually is because Trump is able to do this. This could possibly disillusion the public into thinking that the stay-at-home order is not important to the efforts or stop listening to public health officials. Overall, this cancellation of funding will send a message to WHO and socially that America does not consider the COVID-19 situation a serious threat. - Victoria Ly
ReplyDelete1. I do think China withholding information from the rest of the world about the virus was a primary reason for the quick escalation in the United States. If china would have shares how bad the virus truly was, the United States would have placed a travel ban on China immediatly. But because China hid how brutal the virus was people were able to fly out of Wuhan and spread the virus worldwide, creating a pandemic. China should have put the city of Wuhan on lockdown after the first few cases but they waited until the whole world knew about the virus to lockdown Wuhan. If China had let the world know how deadly the virus was I feel like people would take extra precautions to avoid the virus as many people didn't take it too seriously until it escalated in the US.
ReplyDelete