After US cuts funding, WHO chief defends $2.1B budget request by comparing it with cost of war

By JAMEY KEATEN GENEVA AP Stripped of U S funding the World Soundness Organization chief on Monday appealed to member countries to backing its extremely modest request for a billion annual budget by putting that sum into perspective next to outlays for ad campaigns for tobacco or the cost of war Related Articles The first aid trucks have entered Gaza after nearly months of Israel s blockade JD Vance gives Pope Leo XIV a Trump invitation to visit the US Trump call with Putin underway as he hopes for ceasefire progress in Russia-Ukraine war In contemporary times in History May West Virginia s Matewan Massacre At present in History May Mount St Helens erupts After nearly years of striving to improve human lives and fitness - which critics say it has done poorly or not enough the U N fitness agency is fighting for its own after U S President Donald Trump in January halted funding from the United States which has traditionally been WHO s largest donor Two-point-one billion dollars is the equivalent of global military expenditure every eight hours WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced Two-point-one billion dollars is the price of one stealth bomber to kill people And billion is one-quarter of what the tobacco industry spends on advertising and promotion every single year Again a product that kills people he explained the WHO s annual assembly It seems somebody switched the price tags on what is truly valuable in our world Tedros made no specific reference to the U S cuts but has commented previously the U S pullout was a mistake and urged Washington to reconsider WHO has presented a budget for the next two years that is less than originally planned largely in response to U S and other Western funding cuts and says it has landed commitments for about of that But it still faces a budget gap of billion We know that in the current landscape mobilizing that sum will be a challenge We are not naive to that challenge Tedros reported But for an organization working on the ground in countries with a vast mission and mandate that member states have given us billion for two years or billion a year is not ambitious It s extremely modest he announced Cuts that could cost lives As a product of the cuts the U N soundness agency this year has seen a plunge in its ability to carry out its sweeping mandate to do everything from recommend reductions in sugar levels in soft drinks to head the global response to pandemics like COVID- or outbreaks like polio or Ebola Tedros and his organization have been grappling with a response to the U S cuts as well as reduced outlays from wealthy European countries that are worried about an expansionist Russia and are putting more money toward defense and less toward humanitarian and rise aid Matthew Kavanagh the director of Georgetown University s Center for Global Strength Agenda and Politics explained other countries have used the U S cut in aid as cover to do their maneuvering with plenty of countries in Europe reducing aid The WHO faces an existential problem that goes well beyond a budget gap to the question of whether this sort of multilateralism can succeed in addressing global soundness in this new era of nationalism and misinformation he stated alluding to discord between plenty of countries that could cost lives Director General of the World Medical Organization WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivers his comment during the opening of the th World Strength Assembly at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva Switzerland Monday May Magali Girardin Keystone via AP Literally millions will likely die needlessly on the current trajectory and the world s fitness ministers do not seem capable of a coherent response Kavanagh added Pandemic preparedness on the agenda On tap for the nine-day World Robustness Assembly are two major advances that are aimed to buttress WHO s financial strength and bolster the world s ability to cope with future pandemics Member countries are expected to agree to raise annual dues known as assessed contributions by to promotion WHO finances and reduce dependency on governments voluntary contributions which change each year and make up over half of the budget They are also expected to agree to a hard-wrought pandemic treaty that was born of a desire to avoid any replay of the patchy unequal response to COVID- when the next and inevitable largest part experts say pandemic hits Among other things the treaty would guarantee that countries that share critical samples of viruses will receive any resulting tests medicines and vaccines and give WHO up to of such products to make sure poorer countries can have access to them Every World Physical condition Assembly is critical but this year s is especially so Tedros reported This is truly a historic moment The treaty s effectiveness will face doubts when the U S which poured billions into speedy work by pharmaceutical companies to develop COVID- vaccines is sitting out and because countries face no penalties if they ignore it a common issue in international law Kavanagh reported passage of the treaty could be a key triumph evidence that the U S cabinet may no longer be indispensable in global wellness and could offer an opportunity for evolving nations in the global South over the longer term Management shake-up as critics blast WHO Trump has long derided WHO including back in his first term when he pulled the United States out over its alleged kowtowing to China and other alleged missteps in the Covid pandemic President Joe Biden put the U S back in On his first day back in office in January Trump signed an executive order to pause future transfers of U S ruling body funds to the WHO recall U S cabinet staff working with it and announce a formal pullout by next January under a one-year timetable required under U S law Other opponents continue to lash out at WHO CitizenGo an activist group that supports right-to-life and religious liberty issues protested Monday against the pandemic treaty outside the U N compound in Geneva where WHO s meeting was taking place The rally included a balloon sculpture in the shape of the world and a banner inveighing against globalist elites and showing an image of Tedros and billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates a major WHO supporter shaking hands while surrounded by dollars In the aftermath of Covid the WHO got together and thought was a good idea to centralize even more power mentioned CitizenGo campaigner Sebastian Lukomski accusing WHO of an effort to remove more fundamental freedoms and not learn from the mistakes that were taking place during COVID In the run-up to the assembly WHO has been cleaning house and cutting costs At a meeting on its budget last week Tedros a former Ethiopian fitness and foreign minister stated a shake-up of top management that included the exit of key adviser Dr Michael Ryan from the job as emergencies chief Tedros explained last week that the loss of U S funds and other assistance have left the WHO with a salary gap of more than million