Trump Giving the Finger to WHO will kill not only Americans

Americas Isolation in the fight against COVID-19 will kill
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Pulling the United States of America out of the World Health Organization (WHO) is a shock not only to most Americans, but it’s spitting in the face of  368,418 individuals that lost their lives to the COVID-19 epidemic. The largest number is in the United States totaling 104,542 Americans dead. It’ will isolate the United States even more from the rest of the world, from allies and foes.

The entire world should be united in the fight against the biggest threat this planet is going through for most of our lifetimes.

In the midst of this crisis and at a time when cooperation and not confrontation is the way forward, US President Donald Trump selected confrontation.

Many of the US legislators know this and are alarmed. This included Congressman David Price from North Carolina who released a statement on President Trump’s announcement that he intends to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization and remove Hong Kong’s special treatment.

The congressman said: “President Trump ripped a page out of the fringe right-wing playbook when he announced today that the United States will pull out of the World Health Organization. At a time when the United States is suffering from over 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, the move to isolate and choose an ‘America alone’ strategy against a virus that knows no borders is simply beyond comprehension.

“For someone who claims to be tough on China, President Trump is handing Beijing far more influence in the world by removing the United States from the playing field, ditching our allies, and responding to the crisis in Hong Kong unilaterally without defending the democratic and human rights that the people of Hong Kong have fought so hard for.

“America’s leadership role in the world is at stake. Effective leadership is not bullying, blundering, and abandoning our friends. Now is not the moment to shirk our responsibilities – it’s a moment to lead, collaborate, and show what we stand for and what we are made of.”

America’s isolation in the fight against COVID-19 will kill many more people, and it will isolate the United States more and more from the rest of the world and from what America was known to protect – freedom!

“This will also be a threat because it has direct consequences to the largest peace industry – tourism,” said Juergen Steinmetz, chair of #rebuildingtravel  

Trump Giving the Finger to WHO will kill not only Americans

alliesfoes

While the United States gave the finger to WHO, the World Health Organization issued this release on solidarity and cooperation.

Thirty countries and multiple international partners and institutions have signed up to support the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), an initiative aimed at making vaccines, tests, treatments and other health technologies to fight COVID-19 accessible to all.

The Pool was first proposed in March by President Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica, who joined WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today at the official launch of the initiative.

“The COVID-19 Technology Access Pool will ensure the latest and best science benefits all of humanity,” said President Alvarado of Costa Rica. “Vaccines, tests, diagnostics, treatments, and other key tools in the coronavirus response must be made universally available as global public goods.”

“Global solidarity and collaboration are essential to overcoming COVID-19,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Based on strong science and open collaboration, this information-sharing platform will help provide equitable access to life-saving technologies around the world.”

The COVID-19 (Technology) Access Pool will be voluntary and based on social solidarity. It will provide a one-stop shop for scientific knowledge, data, and intellectual property to be shared equitably by the global community.

The aim is to accelerate the discovery of vaccines, medicines, and other technologies through open-science research, and to fast-track product development by mobilizing additional manufacturing capacity. This will help ensure faster and more equitable access to existing and new COVID-19 health products.

There are five key elements to the initiative:

  • Public disclosure of gene sequences and data;
  • Transparency around the publication of all clinical trial results;
  • Governments and other funders are encouraged to include clauses in funding agreements with pharmaceutical companies and other innovators about equitable distribution, affordability, and the publication of trial data;
  • Licensing any potential treatment, diagnostic, vaccine, or other health technology to the Medicines Patent Pool – a United Nations-backed public health body that works to increase access to, and facilitate the development of, life-saving medicines for low- and middle-income countries; and
  • Promotion of open innovation models and technology transfer that increase local manufacturing and supply capacity, including through joining the Open COVID Pledge and the Technology Access Partnership (TAP).

With supportive countries across the globe, C-TAP will serve as a sister initiative to the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and other initiatives to support efforts to fight COVID-19 worldwide.

WHO, Costa Rica and all the co-sponsor countries have also issued a “Solidarity Call to Action” asking relevant stakeholders to join and support the initiative, with recommended actions for key groups, such as governments, research and development funders, researchers, industry, and civil society.

WHO and Costa Rica co-hosted today’s launch event, which began with a high-level session addressed by the WHO Director-General and President Alvarado in addition to Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados and Aksel Jacobsen, State Secretary, Norway. There were video statements by President Lenín Moreno of Ecuador; President Thomas Esang Remengesau Jr., of Palau; President Lenín Moreno of Ecuador; , Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; and Retno Marsudi, Minister for Foreign Affairs for Indonesia. Leaders from across the UN, academia, industry, and civil society joined for a moderated discussion.

To date, the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool is now supported by the following countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bhutan, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Honduras, Indonesia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Mozambique, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, The Netherlands, Timor-Leste, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe.

Other international organizations, partners, and experts have also expressed support to the initiative and others can join them using the website.

More on rebuilding travel go to www.rebuilding.travel

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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