Coronavirus: Trump to halt US funding for World Health Organisation

[JP_]

Yet another attack on the experts that are best placed to criticise the government's decisions.
Shut them down, block them out, tell everybody they are a waste of space, and problem solved. Simples.

The world is going tits up. I though Brexit was bringing out all the muppets and fascists, but coronavirus is seemingly far more effective.

 

[Bodd]

And while it is good of him to do so , I would expect that he also has no personal debt, isn't running a deficit, and has little else to spend his fortune on. Unlike many governments.

That's a very good point

 

[JohnD]

I wonder how much Philip Green, the Barclay brothers, Richard Branson, and Murdoch donate?

Oooops - my mistake - they're asking the rest of us to chip in for them.

Some governments don't collect as much tax as you might expect, and spend less.

See above.

 

[festive]

One of the challenges the WHO has is that it is powerless. It relies on cooperation from nations to gather data and do anything. After Ebola they decided to take a more softly-softly approach.

Just got back from a run what a beautiful day... ok where was i...

Again not defending Trump (and yes his self motives here cast much scepticism on every word he spouts) but, with regards to WHO i don't think it's a time for fear of offending 'softly-softly' approach wtaf?! We need a strong credible powerful voice here sending out a clear global message. Hence my comparison with Greta, she is powerless but has condemned world leaders in front of a world audience and been applauded for it. WHO could and can voice their concerns we would listen, they should insist we stop all flights and all wear masks where possible, but their advice is still just that softly spoken words, i for one have no idea what their strategy is let alone our own Government who also seem to be doing things wrong (says the armchair expert)

I agree pointing the finger now isn't helping and cutting funds is idiotic, but he has a point about WHO, and that is my point.

 

[Bodd]

I wonder how much Philip Green, the Barclay brothers, Richard Branson, and Murdoch donate?

Oooops - my mistake - they're asking the rest of us to chip in for them.

I'm with you there John...

 

[JohnD]

Trump gives aid to states depending how much they thank him and lick his asre.

Is he the sort of fellow who welcomes constructive criticsm? Or the sort of mean-spirited individual who padlocks his wallet?

 

[festive]

Just because you're smart enough to spot his bullshit, doesn't mean you can troll for attention without it being called out. Lets face it, the only reason to drop a Greta reference in is to get attention. Almost trump like really...

But I've already said too much. If you'd like to respond I'll leave it there.

Comments about troll and instantly impersonates, awesome, you are normally reasonable and intelligent in your responses, i shall forgive your blip, no i don't want or will reply.

 

[^woody^]

Good read - https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...who-v-coronavirus-why-it-cant-handle-pandemic

Extract

"The extent of the initial coverup is still unclear, but there is no question that at least at the local level, Chinese officials knew about the outbreak of a novel disease for weeks before it was reported to the WHO. During that time, Chinese doctors were prevented from speaking out.

John MacKenzie, the WHO’s emergency committee adviser, told me that the organisation was “a little misled” about the Wuhan outbreak. He says that by the time the government alerted the WHO on 31 December, scientists in China had already determined via genome sequencing that the outbreak was caused by coronavirus. Yet the government didn’t confirm that until 7 January and the full genome sequence was not officially shared until 12 January. “That’s very slow,” MacKenzie told me. “For at least two weeks, we could have been making far more kits and so on for testing.” MacKenzie added that the number of cases officially declared by the Chinese in the first week – 59 in the week ending 5 January – was “nowhere near as many cases as you’d expect”. (The statistics released by the Chinese government continue to be questioned, with some reports suggesting they may have seriously understated the number of coronavirus deaths.)

Despite mounting frustrations – in mid-January, China also refused the WHO’s request to send a team of scientific observers to Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak – Tedros has never come close to doing what Brundtland did and calling China out. Instead, on 28 January, he had a closed-door meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing, and two days later, he praised Chinese efforts to contain the disease, declaring that China is “setting a new standard for outbreak control”. That same day, 30 January, the WHO declared a Pheic, and began issuing prescriptions to countries around the world. On 8 February, China finally allowed WHO observers into the country. For Tedros’s supporters, this was vindication of his strategy of keeping China onside. For his critics, it was too little, too late."

 

[ajohn]

Trump was also going to stop contributing to something else - nato if I remember correctly but hasn't.

This time he wants the WHO to condemn China when his own people are using the data they provided and also responded rather quicker than he did.

The man is a source of a lot of noise that sometimes is effective due to the USA's monetary might. That largely comes from ruling over a lot of people who speak the same language, buy things and have money to spend so everyone wants to sell stuff there and always have wanted to for that very reason.

As a couple of senators where overheard saying a few years ago "The USA has it's empire now, an economic one"

 

[JohnD]

yes

Strategy.

"Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is urging the government to publish an exit strategy from the coronavirus lockdown this week."

"The government said talking about an exit before the virus had reached its peak risks confusing the public.

The Labour leader has written to Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson while he continues his recovery from coronavirus, to say Labour would support a continuation of the measures.

But, he said, the government needed to set out an exit strategy to maintain trust and to ensure that arrangements are in place for it."

edit - sorry, some kind of repeat post? System may have crashed while I was working.

 

[JP_]

I agree with them both. We need an exit strategy, but we need to know we are far from exit too.

The problem is, an exit strategy must include testing everybody for coronavirus, and test all that have had it for antigens. Until we are in a position to do that, and also have the means to control people's movements based on test results, we risk just setting it all off again. We still don't know how long people will be immune, if they've had it. We don't know how long people might be contagious after getting it. We just don't know enough. THis is where health experts come in handy!

It only takes one carrier to infect tens of thousands within a few weeks.

But the government does need to decide what their plan is, and tell us about it.

I'm pretty sure it has infected my whole family, we've all had symptoms, but not the high fever and breathing problems (I have been a little breathless a couple of times - not a joke!). But as we have not been tested, cannot be tested, who knows if we are immune, and safe to mingle with others?

Test, test, test. Exit.

 

[Notch7]

Trumps decision to pause funding of WHO is for one reason only:

its a massive dead cat to deflect from his own huge failings on managing this crisis.

last nights press conference was an embarrassment: Trump and a bunch of sycophants all saying how great Trump is

 

[festive]

Bang on thanks Woody and from a tabloid some people believe is credible here

For people wondering who Tedros is he's the director general of WHO. I shall say it again 'Trump does have a point'.

Good read - https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...who-v-coronavirus-why-it-cant-handle-pandemic
"The extent of the initial coverup is still unclear....

Despite mounting frustrations – in mid-January, China also refused the WHO’s request to send a team of scientific observers to Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak – Tedros has never come close to doing what Brundtland did and calling China out. Instead, on 28 January, he had a closed-door meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing, and two days later, he praised Chinese efforts to contain the disease, declaring that China is “setting a new standard for outbreak control”. That same day, 30 January, the WHO declared a Pheic, and began issuing prescriptions to countries around the world. On 8 February, China finally allowed WHO observers into the country. For Tedros’s supporters, this was vindication of his strategy of keeping China onside. For his critics, it was too little, too late."

 

[festive]

last nights press conference was an embarrassment: Trump and a bunch of sycophants all saying how great Trump is

What i really don't get is the post speech waffle it's like reading the credits at the end of a movie or some kind of commercial advert for all his 'friends'. Very fcked up.

 

[ajohn]

Good read - https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...who-v-coronavirus-why-it-cant-handle-pandemic

Extract

"The extent of the initial coverup is still unclear, but there is no question that at least at the local level, Chinese officials knew about the outbreak of a novel disease for weeks before it was reported to the WHO. During that time, Chinese doctors were prevented from speaking out.

John MacKenzie, the WHO’s emergency committee adviser, told me that the organisation was “a little misled” about the Wuhan outbreak. He says that by the time the government alerted the WHO on 31 December, scientists in China had already determined via genome sequencing that the outbreak was caused by coronavirus. Yet the government didn’t confirm that until 7 January and the full genome sequence was not officially shared until 12 January. “That’s very slow,” MacKenzie told me. “For at least two weeks, we could have been making far more kits and so on for testing.” MacKenzie added that the number of cases officially declared by the Chinese in the first week – 59 in the week ending 5 January – was “nowhere near as many cases as you’d expect”. (The statistics released by the Chinese government continue to be questioned, with some reports suggesting they may have seriously understated the number of coronavirus deaths.)

Despite mounting frustrations – in mid-January, China also refused the WHO’s request to send a team of scientific observers to Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak – Tedros has never come close to doing what Brundtland did and calling China out. Instead, on 28 January, he had a closed-door meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing, and two days later, he praised Chinese efforts to contain the disease, declaring that China is “setting a new standard for outbreak control”. That same day, 30 January, the WHO declared a Pheic, and began issuing prescriptions to countries around the world. On 8 February, China finally allowed WHO observers into the country. For Tedros’s supporters, this was vindication of his strategy of keeping China onside. For his critics, it was too little, too late."

It's just the blame game. There will be others later. The official report is available on the WHO site. Look and you may then appreciate why and what they did. I'd say response time was much faster than many others would have been and excruciatingly efficient. That aspect will embarrass many other countries - for instance doctors have to report certain types of symptoms centrally. That means rather low numbers can be detected far more quickly. They also have the similar tools as S Korea and Singapore to help fight it. All of these were prepared for outbreaks of this type "thanks" to sars and mers.

We may be getting our own mobile phone tracking soon. Just one mention so may be wishful thinking. Have to wait and see but unless it links up to testing I wonder if it will achieve anything really. It doesn't store anything centrally. All done via the phones. I understand Korea kept a rolling 21 day worth of data. Singapore not sure but seems they didn't shut down their economy - split work up into shifts so people could maintain distancing. Seems they also launched a self isolating registery web page as well. Almost immediately. Testing per head was enormous.

It looks like we may be hearing more about general public face mask wearing here soon too. There are some big holes in what they do say otherwise front line workers would be falling like flies but there seems to be more interest in using them to limit spreading now.