Melinda Gates has slammed U.S. President Donald Trump for pulling funding from the World Health Organization (WHO) in this coronavirus crisis period.
During a telephone interview with Reuters, Melinda Gates insisted that it was a dangerous and nonsensical move on the part of Trump during a time like this.
Read also: Joe Biden wins Washington Presidential Primary
Announcing an extra $150 million of funding from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help speed up the development of treatments, vaccines and public health measures to tackle the new coronavirus outbreak, Melinda Gates said the WHO was “exactly the organization that can deal with this pandemic”.
Donald Trump had on Tuesday announced that they would stop funding to the WHO, because they had “failed in its basic duty” in allowing the pandemic to take hold.
The WHO’s Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday he regretted Trump’s decision. He said the organization was still assessing the impact and would “try to fill any gaps with partners”.
While speaking with ABC News anchor David Muir on Wednesday, Bill said: “I’m hopeful that he doesn’t follow through on that because we need their support.”
Melinda, who co-chairs the foundation with the billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said: “I think it’s worth saying, we’ve been working with the WHO for over 20 years as a foundation.
“And no institution is perfect, but it’s the global response that’s going to get us through this, and WHO was created after World War II to deal with exactly these kinds of issues around the world.
“So halting funding right now, that just doesn’t make any sense”.