17.04.2020
African Health Leaders, Scientists Protest US Decision To Suspend WHO’s Funding; Gates Announces $150 Million More For COVID-19 Emergency

Health Policy Watch "The impacts on Africa of United States President Trump’s decision to withhold funding to the WHO will be ‘quite significant’ as the US is the “number one contributor” of the WHO African Region budget, said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, at a joint press conference hosted by the WHO and the World Economic Forum today. Meanwhile, a number of prominent national African health leaders signed an open letter in The BMJ calling the Trump move “petulant” and “short-sighted”. And in a move to counter some of the budget shortalls, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced an emergency allocation of US$ 150 million to the WHO to “help speed up development of vaccines, treatment and public health measures” to tackle the pandemic. That was in addition to a previous US$ 100 million emergency allocation." (Photo: United States Mission Geneva/flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)