Demand President Trump Restores Funding To The World Health Organization

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Millions of people have been infected by COVID-19, which has grown into a global pandemic that's claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. **But amid the spiraling death toll, another contagion is spreading** – blame – and it's putting even more people risk.1

**President Trump's recent decision to cut funding to the World Health Organization**, which the president has accused of “covering up” China's role in the early days of the outbreak, is an example of this **deadly blame game**. Nobody disputes that the WHO, like many government leaders, made mistakes in the early days of the outbreak. But stripping the UN agency of critical funding during a global pandemic will only unleash devastating consequences.2

**In addition to needlessly risking more lives, President Trump's decision is effectively extending this pandemic.** WHO researchers are working around-the-clock to find a vaccine, so cancelling America's contribution – which accounts for 15 percent of the agency's funding – could disrupt these clinical trials, leaving the world vulnerable to future outbreaks.3,4 **President Trump's decision will also hamper America's ability to re-open the country for business**, because U.S. cities -- already desperately short on diagnostic testing -- can't reopen their economies without a way of telling who is healthy and sick.5

“The U.S. needs the World Health Organization to function properly,” Tom Inglesby, director of Johns Hopkins University's Center for Health Security, told Fox News Sunday. “It is the organization that helps the world prepare and respond to this. **We're going to need the world to recover from Covid if we're going to get normalcy back.** ” 6

President Trump's decision will have an outsized impact on poor countries that depend on the WHO for critical supplies, tests, training, and other vital services to help them contain the deadly virus.  “**Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds**,” Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, whose foundation works in many of the countries that depend on the WHO for such life-saving assistance, wrote on Twitter. “Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. **The world needs @WHO now more than ever**.” 6,7

**Please sign the petition demanding that President Trump restores America's funding to the World Health Organization. Our lives, and livelihoods, depend on it.**