No logic in US cutting ties with WHO, British expert says

President Trump said Chinese officials had ‘ignored’ their reporting obligations to the WHO.

There is no logic in the US terminating its relationship with the World Health Organisation (WHO), a British expert has said.

President Donald Trump said the WHO had failed to adequately respond to coronavirus because China has “total control” over the global organisation.

But Dr Stephen Griffin, associate professor in the School of Medicine, University of Leeds, said there was “no logic” in severing links during the middle of a global pandemic.

He added: “There is no logic to the move by President Trump to sever links with the WHO.

“Pandemics are, by definition, a global crisis. To not face Covid-19 with a united front seems futile.

“Given the scale of the outbreak in the US, this action appears nothing short of an attempt to refocus attention away from how this has been handled.”

Dr Gail Carson, director of network development at the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium, said that during a pandemic was not the time to make health political.

Dr Carson, a consultant in infectious diseases at the University of Oxford, added: “If there was a time not to make health political it is now, when the world is in the throes of a pandemic.

“Now is the time for solidarity and to stand together to end the pandemic as soon as we can and to save lives.

“Is this US Government decision going to do good to all?