Trump Threatens to Pull Out of WHO Over Virus Response

President Donald Trump has threatened to pull the US out of the World Health Organization, accusing it of botching the global coronavirus response and of being a “puppet of China” — prompting rebuke from Beijing which said Tuesday Washington was “shirking responsibility”.

Trump has been locked in a bitter spat with Beijing, alleging it covered up the initial outbreak in central China late last year before the disease unleashed death and economic devastation across the planet.

  A passenger wears a protective suit against the spread of the COVID-19, queues at El Dorado international airport in Bogota, Colombia

With more fatalities and cases in the United States than any other country by far, the under-pressure US president has blamed the WHO for not doing enough to combat its initial spread.

“They’re a puppet of China, they’re China-centric to put it nicer,” he said on Monday at the White House. “They gave us a lot of bad advice.”

Top financial contributors to the World Health Organization

“The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China,” it added, giving the body 30 days to show “substantive improvements”.

Beijing has furiously denied the US allegations that it played down the threat, and Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated at the World Health Assembly that his nation had been “transparent” throughout the crisis.

A resident of Paraisopolis, one of Sao Paulo’s largest slums, takes part in a protest to demand more aid from the Brazilian government during the COVID-19 pandemic

The WHO’s main annual assembly was due Tuesday to discuss a resolution tabled by the European Union calling for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken by the UN agency.

Countries reached an agreement in principle last week to accept the text unanimously, but amid rising political tensions some observers expressed fears that full consensus might not be obtained.

Scientists at Peking University have said they are developing a drug that can help stop the pandemic without a vaccine

Early — and small — clinical trials of a vaccine by US firm Moderna showed encouraging results, with recipients showing an immune response similar to people recovering from COVID-19. It will begin a larger second-phase trial soon.

In China, meanwhile, scientists at Peking University have said they are developing a drug that can help stop the pandemic without a vaccine by using antibodies that can neutralise the virus.

In Russia, the number of coronavirus cases hit nearly 300,000 on Tuesday

Authorities around the world are keeping an eye on such breakthroughs as the virus continues on its destructive path, with many poorer nations now seeing a dramatic rise in infections even as the caseload eases in more developed parts of the world like Europe.

In Russia, the number of coronavirus cases hit nearly 300,000 on Tuesday after Moscow said the virus situation had stabilised. The Kremlin also said Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is returning to his duties after fighting off the coronavirus.

AFP / Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine

Meanwhile the economic impact of the virus was further entrenched with fresh data showing the number of unemployed in Britain jumping to 1.3 million in three months to March.

The vast economic damage caused by the virus has led to unprecedented emergency stimulus measures by governments and central banks, and the latest came from Europe where France and Germany laid out a half-trillion-euro fund.

Gravediggers lower the coffin of a COVID-19 victim into a grave at Pondok Ranggon cemetery in Jakarta

Already, Brazil has overtaken Britain to have the third-highest number of infections in the world with around 255,000 confirmed cases, and the death toll in Latin America and the Caribbean has topped 30,000.

Maria Nunes Sinimbu, a retired teacher from, Manaus, the biggest city in the Brazilian Amazon, said COVID-19 has killed five of her family members, including three of her 12 children.