Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
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WASHINGTON – Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton based the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and overturned its decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization.
“There is a lot of really important work that needs to be done, and the United States needs to be in the middle of it. It can not sit on the sidelines indifferently, or even despise international efforts and expect that we will benefit ourselves,” Clinton told a virtual audience during an interview hosted by the Atlantic Council.
“We should have intensive diplomatic talks with health experts, logistics experts and others on how we will finally arrive at a safe and effective vaccine or perhaps even more than one, and then manage its distribution so that we try to bring the world together. to defeat the pandemic does not allow the vaccination nationalism that is taking place right now, “Clinton said.
Last month, the Trump administration submitted to the UN Secretary-General its announcement to take him back to the World Health Organization by July 6, 2021, a senior administration official confirmed to CNBC.
The announcement to the United Nations was the first step in a year-long process that will rely on several factors beyond Trump’s control, including congressional cooperation and the president’s own reelection in November, and neither is assured.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has previously said he would join the US re-joining the WHO on day one of his presidency, should he defeat Trump this November.
Earlier this month, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he hoped the United States would reconsider its decision to leave the United Nations Health Organization, adding that the coronavirus could not be defeated “in a divided world.”
“The problem is not about the money. It is not the funding that is the problem. It is actually the relationship with the US that is more important and its leadership abroad,” Ghebreyesus told a virtual audience at Aspen Security Forum.
The Trump administration’s move to withdraw from the WHO comes as coronavirus cases reach nearly 5.5 million in the United States, according to a Johns Hopkins University census. Worldwide, the virus has infected about 21.7 million and killed more than 775,900. At least 170,000 have died in the US alone.
“Let’s hope that individual peoples will learn lessons. But let’s also hope that we can collectively formulate a more robust and rapid international response and buy every nation into it, that you do not have the role of no nation in the middle of a “be a potential pandemic, you know, close and exclude research from international experts. We need to become more open and transparent,” Clinton said.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference on the situation of the coronavirus (COVID-2019), in Geneva, Switzerland, 28 February 2020.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
In April, Trump said he had withheld U.S. funding to the organization pending a review, calling what he called “the World Health Organization’s role in severe mismanagement and spread of the coronavirus spread.”
A month later, he announced his intentions to leave the organization amid the coronavirus pandemic, citing what he called the WHO’s misuse of funding and its social relationship with China.
“China has total control over the World Health Organization, even though it only pays $ 40 million a year compared to what the United States has paid, which is about $ 450 million a year,” Trump said during remarks in the Rose Garden.
“We have detailed the reforms that it needs to make and are directly involved with them, but they have refused to act. Because they have failed to make the requested and much-needed reforms, we will discuss our relationship with the World Health Organization today. “end and divert those funds to other global and emerging, urgent, global public health needs,” he added at the time.
On the heels of comments from Trump’s Rose Garden in May, the state Department began diverting funds from the World Health Organization to other global health organizations.
“The President has made it clear that the WHO needs to take action together. This begins with demonstrably significant progress and the ability to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks with transparency and accountability,” a State Department spokesman wrote. in an email statement to CNBC in July.
“The United States will continue its efforts to reform the WHO and other international organizations to ensure transparency, fulfill its mandates and hold governments accountable for their commitments under international law.”
But Clinton warned that the administration’s hard-line approach would not help resolve the nation’s crisis.
“I wish that instead of the behavior we are currently seeing from the Trump administration, we will see a more thoughtful smart-engaged cooperative effort, because that is what it will take.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
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