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Anonymous ID: b082eb Nov. 29, 2021, 9:59 a.m. No.15100667   🗄️.is đź”—kun

>>15100630

 

With some Western governments failing to follow the World Health Organisation’s advice on tackling coronavirus, right-wing figures in the US and UK are seeking to discredit the UN body as pro-China.But Britain and the US themselves are the WHO’s largest funders and among its major influencers.

 

British doctor personally endorsed by Boris Johnson is a WHO special envoy on Covid-19

Former health minister from UK Conservative Party also holds senior position at the WHO

Western donors give the WHO more money than China despite media claims.

 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is under attack from Western politicians ranging from US President Donald Trump to the UK Conservative Party’s former leader Iain Duncan Smith, in addition to some right-wing media outlets.

 

Trump said the WHO has “called it wrong” in responding to coronavirus and “seems to be very much biased towards China”.

 

It is not the first time the WHO has been criticised for its response to an infectious disease. In 2014, the WHO was accused of responding too slowly to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, particularly in Guinea, which is a close ally of France.

 

Internal emails obtained by the Associated Press revealed that the WHO’s leadership were reluctant to call an emergency in case the countries affected by Ebola interpreted it as a “hostile act”. Guinean officials pressured the WHO to only report confirmed cases in order to “reassure expatriates working in the mining industry.”

 

This incident cast a bad light on the WHO’s outgoing director-general, Dr Margaret Chan, a Chinese medic born under British rule in Hong Kong, and in 2016 the WHO began a democratic process to appoint her successor.

 

Britain is often keen to secure leadership roles on UN bodies and the UK government put forward Dr David Nabarro, a British veteran of the international aid sector, as its candidate to succeed Chan…

 

This presence of British government-approved figures such as Ellison and Nabarro at the top of the WHO is often overlooked by those seeking to portray the organisation as pro-China…

 

Last week, the British investigative magazine Private Eye asked why the WHO was “being so indulgent of China” and suggested its “kow-towing might just be related to its own precarious financial position, which makes it increasingly reliant on Beijing”. It said that the WHO’s largest funder, the US, was behind on its payments, and that “China, second-largest contributor, is more reliable”.

 

In fact, there are other countries and organisations, apart from the US, that give more money to the WHO than China.

 

When it comes to assessed contributions to the WHO, which are mandatory for member states and vary according to their wealth, China gave the third-largest amount in 2018-19, below the US and Japan. Germany, France and the UK were the next top donors.

 

The WHO also receives voluntary contributions from states, which can be much larger than their assessed contributions. Again, the US was the highest spender in this category, followed by the UK and Germany.

 

When assessed and voluntary contributions for 2018-19 are combined, China was the sixth largest state funder of the WHO, according to its press office….

 

When all private donors are included, China does not even feature in the WHO’s top 10 overall funders for 2018-19. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the WHO’s second-largest funder after the US government.

 

According to a report by Global Justice Now, the Gates Foundation has considerable access to the WHO leadership and much of its funding is tied to particular projects it wishes to support, helping to secure influence over the organisation’s direction

 

In a 2017 interview with the right-wing Spectator magazine, Gates warned: “If people aren’t worried about pandemics coming to Britain then they should be… If you asked what in the world is most likely to jump out and kill an extra 10 million people, it is absolutely a pandemic.”

 

Dr Tedros has rejected accusations that the WHO is “China-centric”, telling a press conference yesterday: “We are close to every nation, we are colour-blind.”

 

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-04-09-who-controls-who/

 

09 Apr 2020