Zack, Jenn, and Alex talk about Trump’s plan to freeze US funding for the World Health Organization (WHO), ostensibly in retaliation for its failures in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak. The team discusses the very real problems with the organization’s response and why cutting global health funding during a pandemic is both dangerous and geopolitically shortsighted.

References:

Vox has a story explaining how Trump’s poor coronavirus response isn’t the WHO’s fault.

Here’s that disastrous WHO tweet Zack cited.

Vox also has a piece on how China obfuscated early information on the coronavirus outbreak.

Time has a story on what critics are saying about Trump’s WHO decision.

In February, the Council on Foreign Relations had a blog post on the WHO’s missteps.

The New York Times explains why Trump’s WHO play is just a way to shift blame.

Here’s the clip of the WHO official hanging up on a reporter after questions about Taiwan.

Vox’s explainer on the coronavirus has a lot of important information about the pandemic.

Hosts:

Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox

Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), senior foreign editor, Vox

Alex Ward (@AlexWardVox), national security reporter, Vox

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