During Tuesday's United Nations General Assembly, President Joe Biden, whose first time it was to attend the event as President of the United States, announced that under his leadership, America had reinstated funding to the World Health Organization (WHO). The return of American financial support to the global leader in health comes at the heels of the organization's massive failures in dealing with the COVID pandemic.
"We are re-engaged at the World Health Organization and working in close partnership with COVAX to deliver life-saving vaccines around the world," President Biden said during his first speech as the U.S. President to the U.N. General Assembly, as reported by Breitbart. "Indeed, today, many of our greatest concerns cannot be solved or even addressed through the force of arms. Bombs and bullets cannot defend against COVID-19 or its future variants."
The Democratic leader added, "To fight this pandemic, we need a collective act of science and political will." President Biden, who reiterated his support for COVID vaccines, reported on the $15 billion the U.S. pledged towards the global COVID response, including its donations to WHO's COVAX initiative for equitable access to vaccines.
This is all in spite of the WHO's missteps in dealing with investigations into the origins of COVID, which 18 months later has still not been fully determined. Following his inauguration in January, President Biden reversed former President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the WHO after expressing concerns over the organization's deference to China during the pandemic.
Trump said at the time, "They seem to be very China-centric. That's a nice way of saying it, but they seem to be very China-centric, and they seem to err always on the side of China."
In January 2020, the WHO released findings from an investigation they launched into China's virology lab in Wuhan, where COVID was believed to have originated, echoing China's claims that there was "no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission."
WHO was also reluctant to declare COVID a public health emergency in January, waiting two months for the virus to spread globally before calling it a pandemic because they were concerned it would speak "unreasonable fear." WHO's lack of transparency continues today, as it refuses to reveal how many of its staff are actually vaccinated against COVID.
According to the Business Insider, WHO refuses to disclose how many of its own staff are vaccinated against COVID, despite its massive push for greater vaccine access around the world and continuously encouraging people to get vaccinated when they can. WHO spokeswoman Dr. Margaret Harris said that the details on how many WHO employees were actually vaccinated was "confidential." The world leader in public health also expressed disapproval of vaccine mandates in April.
Despite President Biden and WHO appearing not to see eye to eye when it comes to vaccinations, the Democratic leader pledged to give a "dose of hope" through WHO's COVAX program, "direct from the American people - and, importantly, no strings attached." The public awaits details of this and more during President Biden's virtual COVID-19 Summit on Wednesday.
