The US president Donald Trump “does have a point” when criticising the World Health Organisation (WHO), as the body needs to be reformed, said the German Minister of Health, urging, however the country to stay in the UN specialised agency.
Last week Trump threatened to permanently end the US funding to WHO and withdraw the country’s membership, citing the body’s dependency on China. The US President has been accusing China for the spread of Coronavirus and WHO of purposely covering up the virus outbreak.
Yet, without mentioning China, Spahn told the Financial Times that “the WHO needs to reform its governance and accountability. We need to figure out exactly where the money goes”.
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The German Health Minister acknowledged that WHO is susceptible to “influence by individual members” and “must become less dependent on [those] countries,” however he also deemed necessary the body’s existence.
He also stressed that this is not the right time to discuss on WHO’s future, as the world first needs to deal with the Coronavirus crisis.
“First, we have to deal with the crisis, and only then talk about the WHO,” Spahn said.
The US contribution to the organisation is critical, the German Health Minister said, while saying that he he would be “very sorry” to see the US leave.
