NTF ISSUE PAPER: LOBBY CONGRESS TO DEFUND WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

NTF Issue paper: president62.doc. 4-20.
NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS FOR FREEDOM ISSUE PAPER:
LOBBY CONGRESS TO DEFUND WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION.

BACKGROUND
. Funded mostly by the U.S., the World Health Organization (WHO) is a UN bureaucracy supposedly responsible for international public health. Its core mission is to coordinate international efforts against epidemics and provide honest public health guidance, yet it remarkably declared no need for widespread travel restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan, a Chinese provincial capital. The U.S. pays about 22% of the total WHO budget, normally almost $116 million yearly, its largest contributor. However, we have funded the WHO with $893 million during its current 2-year budget period, including about $236 million in dues. The U.S. also voluntarily gives between $100 million and $400 million more per year to the WHO for specific projects, contributions that totaled over $400 million in 2017, the most recent year for which figures are available. The WHO relies heavily on voluntary contributions from member states to support its $4.4 billion budget. It is notoriously cash-strapped; the annual dues members pay to support its annual budget frozen for more than a decade. WHO history, beginning from its creation in 1948, is loaded with egregious errors and missteps that have led to numerous deaths and poor responses to infectious diseases. The organization pursued a slow response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa which cost thousands of lives. Yet, its flaws ignored in mainstream media scrutiny, which instead focuses on Trump and the U.S. death count.

TRUMP INITIATIVE
. President Trump several times has criticized the WHO because of its bungling handling of the COVID-19 virus pandemic and because of its slavish attachment to Red China. He accused the agency of failing to sound the alarm about the spreading virus. “They must have seen it,” Trump said. “But they didn’t report it.” Trump fortunately rejected its worthless advice to keep U.S. borders open to Red China travel indefinitely. He is considering defunding this entity by half, saying the U.S. would conduct a study to decide about continuing contributions. Sec. of State Pompeo declared that the Administration was re-evaluating funding the WHO. They and other conservative critics have roundly blamed WHO for leaving nations unprepared for the spread of this virus and for aiding Red China to conceal the wide extent of the outbreak.

CONGRESSIONAL CRITICS
. Conservative Sen. Martha McSally (AZ.) demanded that the WHO director resign, following U.S. intelligence reports that Red China vastly underreported its virus cases and deaths, disgusted that the director hid this evidence from the world. She continued, “It’s just irresponsible, it’s unconscionable what they have done here while we have people dying across the globe.” McSally accused the WHO of parroting Red Chinese propaganda, saying that the U.S. could have responded earlier, “but Red China put us in this position because of its lies and the cover-ups and the complicit WHO.” Conservative Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) demanded and gained a commitment from the Senate Homeland Security Comm. to begin an investigation into this WHO scandal, suggesting that its actions and cover up had left the global health care community unprepared to fight the virus. Scott declared that WHO connivance with Red China had killed many people, that the U.S. would have gone much farther ahead to stop the virus if knowing about its human transmission, that we would have prepared better for testing, protective items, and ventilators. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (ID) joined calls for a WHO probe, including consideration of revoking U.S. funding of the agency. Sen. Steve Daines (Mont.) requested the State Department to conduct its own investigation into Red China failures. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) wants Beijing to forgive U.S. debt, and Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.) seeks to sanction Chinese officials. Sen. Ted Cruz, stated that the WHO consistently has accommodated the will of the Chinese Communist Party during the COVID-19 crisis, that it has lost credibility to ensure effectiveness and deserves re-evaluation of its leadership. Senator Marco Rubio declared that the Chinese government had used the WHO to mislead the world and claimed that the WHO “is either complicit or dangerously incompetent.” Rep. Michael T. McCaul (TX), the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the WHO was complicit in the coronavirus pandemic. “Not only did they praise the Chinese Communist Party’s troubling response, they amplified their disinformation about human to human transmission of coronavirus, continued to ignore Taiwan warnings, and went so far as to criticize the President for his life-saving measure to ban travel from China early on.”

OTHER CRITICISM
. The conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal blasted the WHO for “disinformation,” adding that there is a “way to ensure future pandemics are less deadly: reform or defund the World Health Organization.” Conservatives accused the WHO director of acting as a toady of the Chinese Communist Party propaganda machine instead of the leader of a neutral global authority whose responsibility is to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable. British PM Boris Johnson, himself a victim of COVID-19, is downgrading Red Chinese ties over lack of honesty about the virus. The WHO rightly deserves condemnation for its early declaration that humans could not transmit the virus and its later reluctance to declare a pandemic.

THE REBUKE
. In response to valid criticism, WHO Director Tedros Ghebreyesus, commonly called Tedros, from Ethiopia, whined about politicization of the crisis, racism, and death threats received. WHO officials criticized the Trump decision to early impose a ban on travelers coming from China to the U.S. at the end of January, a move necessary to control the virus spread. Nonetheless, liberal U.S. media sources and Socialist Democrat congressmen criticized Trump for a reluctance to act. Congressional Socialist Dems vow to stop the proposed Trump funding cuts to the WHO.

THE TRUTH
. The COVID-19 virus outbreak began last fall in China and accelerated in December. Red Chinese labs had sequenced the virus genome by that time, but Chicom officials ordered them to destroy samples and not publish their findings. Two Chinese doctors nevertheless warned about the virus seriousness, but local authorities accused them of lies that “severely disturbed the social order” and ordered them to destroy scientific proof. One died after forced to sign a confession letter admitting to “making false comments.” The Chinese regime also suppressed information about the virus online, but the WHO ignored these warnings. On Dec. 31, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control informed the agency of indications that the virus transmits from person to person, but the WHO does not recognize Taiwan and ignored this warning. Taiwan accused the WHO of ignoring its accurate research and warnings. Bruce Aylward, a Canadian senior WHO adviser, seemed to pretend not to hear an interviewer question about Taiwan cautions, disconnected the phone call, then refused to answer the original question after the interviewer reconnected with him. On Jan. 14, the WHO announced that preliminary investigations by Chicom health officials had found no evidence of human transmission. On January 29, the WHO praised China for its restrictive measures to contain the outbreak. The WHO regularly issued praise for the Chinese government alleged mitigation of the virus spread but did not criticize China for its cover-up and misleading statistics. This concealment extended to the local level, where, according to the Financial Times, “authorities had been informed about the virus spreading in their midst but issued orders to suppress the news. In effect, they engineered a cover-up that played down the seriousness of the outbreak, according to officials and medical professionals.” The WHO also repeated the Chicom reported statistics, mostly flawed and subject to serious doubt from the Western media. By the end of January, the virus already had spread to several nations, and a WHO warning seemed an easy decision, despite Red Chinese objections. Yet, the WHO director refused and instead traveled to China to confer with authorities there. “The Chinese government is to be congratulated for the extraordinary measures it has taken,” he said. “I left in absolutely no doubt about China’s commitment to transparency.” Rather than addressing the issue, China arrested journalists and doctors who tried to sound the alarm. It continued to block information on social media, censored all news stories that attempted to report accurate infection numbers, and deported foreign journalists who revealed the truth. The end result of this muzzling was preventable suffering, as countries were unable to take the urgent action needed to respond. Yet, during all the Chicom obfuscation and resulting preventable deaths, the WHO consistently praised Red China for its “transparency” and “leadership,” saying its actions were “making us safer.” To the incredulity of health professionals around the world when finally alerted to the seriousness of the threat in January, the WHO refused to declare it a public health emergency. Not until February 10 did the WHO send a mission to China. A University of Southampton study noted that the number of coronavirus cases could have lessened by 95% had China acted to contain the virus weeks sooner. One Axios study determined that if interventions in China began 1 week, 2 weeks, or 3 weeks earlier, cases could have dropped by 66%, 86%, and 95%, respectively and significantly limited the geographical spread of the disease. Yet, WHO Director Tedros gushed that China had set “a new standard for outbreak response.” He also praised the speed with which China “sequenced the genome and shared it with WHO and the world,” though not disclosed until Jan. 12. On Jan. 30, he continued to state that the WHO does not recommend limiting trade and movement. Tedros said that Red Director Tedros and Chicom President Xi. China did not need to ask to win praise. He then held a news conference announcing Lady Gaga as a headliner for a future WHO concert! As the number of cases and the death toll skyrocketed, the WHO did not declare the coronavirus a pandemic until March 11, even though it had met the criteria for transmission between people, high fatality rates, and worldwide spread. The WHO is now touting Chinese claims to have reduced the number of new infections in Wuhan to zero. But Chinese officials again lie about the numbers for propaganda purposes. Though Red China contributes only about 0.2% of the total WHO budget, its influence over the WHO appears overwhelming and consistent. A frustrated Japanese deputy prime minister called the WHO the “Chinese Health Organization.” Taiwan and other nations complain of inability to access crucial information about the virus outbreak. Taiwan unfortunately excluded from the WHO because of Red China objections to its membership.

THE VILLAINS
. WHO Director Tedros worked closely with Red China while Ethiopian health minister, and the Chicoms supported his bid for WHO director in 2017. He won the directorship election despite many accusations that he ignored 3 cholera epidemics as health minister. Tedros served in the government of the Marxist and violently repressive Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. This gruesome movement was responsible for gross human rights abuses such as torture, repression, and electoral fraud.  Despite his shady past, Tedros became the preferred candidate of the Obama Administration. The 2017 directorship election was extremely controversial. The nations that traditionally have shaped the WHO, such as the U.S., UK, and Canada, supported a Tedros rival, British doctor David Nabarro, currently featured as an authority on COVID-19. During the campaign, Tedros suffered criticism for serving in a repressive government with a poor human rights record. Chinese diplomats used their financial influence and foreign aid to build support for Tedros among 3rd World nations. China consistently has sought to trade financial incentives for votes, offering bribes and cancelling debt for countries that support them. Once elected as director, Tedros quickly repaid Red Chinese support. The first day after his election, he expressed agreement with the Chinese Communist Party claim over free Taiwan. China then funded a new $80 million WHO Center for Disease Control in Ethiopia. Soon, supported by Red China, he tried to install Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe as a WHO goodwill ambassador, backing down only because of wide opposition. The Mugabe appointment was a political payoff to Red China, a close Mugabe ally, and leftist African states. He also appointed a Russian official to the WHO 1 month after meeting with Vladimir Putin. Tedros praised China for its draconian response to the virus, which not only included quarantining millions of people but arresting anyone who “spread rumors.” He boasted that China exhibited “a very rare leadership” in his discussions about containing the coronavirus and praised Chinese disastrous handling of the pandemic as an example for the rest of the world to follow. “China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response,” he declared on Jan. 30, shortly after returning from a trip to Beijing. After meeting with Chicom Pres. Xi, Tedros helped China downplay the severity, prevalence, and scope of the COVID-19 outbreak. Much blame deservedly goes to Tedros, who is not a medical doctor, only holding a degree in public health. While he plays interference for Beijing throughout this virus crisis, he often criticizes the U.S. and other Chicom adversaries for their COVID-19 responses. An international online petition calling for a Tedros resignation already has garnered 800,000 signatures. WHO spends $200 million annually for travel and luxurious hotels, more than its combined budget spent to eradicate tuberculosis, AIDS, and malaria. The WHO won wide criticism for its inept handling of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, waiting more than 5 months to declare the disease spread a public health emergency. Its Global Alert and Response Network sent a team of experts to coordinate the response to the Ebola outbreak but withdrew them quickly, even as viral transmission continued unabated.

TAKE ACTION NOW
. That the WHO inexcusably delayed declaring the rapid spread of the Wuhan virus a global emergency glaringly indicates that it has failed to meet professional standards and provide an accurate evaluation of the situation. The organization has failed to fulfill its duty to prevent the global spread of a new disease. It made an active choice to protect and excuse an authoritarian regime, Red China, even as the pandemic kills thousands around the world and incalculably damages the global economy. Congress must hold the WHO accountable, because the liberal media refuses to hold it accountable. Congress must take action now, support the President, and pass a resolution to end U.S. funding for the WHO. Lobby your representative and 2 senators today to pressure Congress to halt taxpayer dollars for the WHO, using the above information. Email netaxpayers@gmail.com for Capitol Hill contact information and to join our NTF President Watch Project and Congress Watch Project.

Research, documentation, and analysis for this issue paper done by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom. This material copyrighted by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission granted for its use by other groups in the NE Conservative Coalition Network. 4-20. C

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