Against the backdrop of the Coronavirus conspiracy theories: The Tuskegee Experiment as part of America's sordid history

CC™ Histography

The Tuskegee experiment began in 1932, at at a time when there was no known treatment for syphilis. After being recruited by the promise of free medical care, 600 men originally were enrolled in the project.

The participants were primarily sharecroppers, and many had never before visited a doctor. Doctors from the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), which was running the study, informed the participants—399 men with latent syphilis and a control group of 201 others who were free of the disease—they were being treated for bad blood, a term commonly used in the area at the time to refer to a variety of ailments.

Participants in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

(Credit: National Archives)

The men were monitored by health workers but only given placebos such as aspirin and mineral supplements, despite the fact penicillin became the recommended treatment for syphilis in 1947. PHS researchers convinced local physicians in Macon County not to treat the participants, and research was done at the Tuskegee Institute. (Now called Tuskegee University, the school was founded in 1881 with Booker T. Washington at its first teacher). 

In order to track the disease’s full progression, researchers provided no effective care as the men died, went blind or insane or experienced other severe health problems due to their untreated syphilis. 

In the mid-1960s, a PHS venereal disease investigator in San Francisco named Peter Buxton found out about the Tuskegee study and expressed his concerns to his superiors that it was unethical. In response, PHS officials formed a committee to review the study but ultimately opted to continue it, with the goal of tracking the participants until all had died, autopsies were performed and the project data could be analyzed. 

As a result, Buxton leaked the story to a reporter friend, who passed it on to a fellow reporter, Jean Heller of the Associated Press. Heller broke the story in July 1972, prompting public outrage and forcing the study to shut down.

By that time, 28 participants had perished from syphilis, 100 more had passed away from related complications, at least 40 spouses had been diagnosed with it and the disease had been passed to 19 children at birth.

A participant in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

(Credit: National Archives)

In 1973, Congress held hearings on the Tuskegee experiments, and the following year the study’s surviving participants, along with the heirs of those who died, received a $10 million out-of-court settlement. Additionally, new guidelines were issued to protect human subjects in U.S. government-funded research projects.

(In 1947, the Nuremberg Code was established in response to Nazi physicians forcibly performing gruesome experiments on prisoners in concentration camps during World War II. The document set forth basic ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, such as the requirement that a person must give informed consent before participating in an experiment.)

As a result of the Tuskegee experiment, many African Americans developed a lingering, deep mistrust of public health officials. In part to foster racial healing, President Clinton issued a 1997 apology, stating, “The United States government did something that was wrong—deeply, profoundly, morally wrong… It is not only in remembering that shameful past that we can make amends and repair our nation, but it is in remembering that past that we can build a better present and a better future.”

During his apology, the president announced plans for the establishment of Tuskegee University’s National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care.

The final study participant passed away in 2004.

Herman Shaw speaks as President Bill Clinton looks on during ceremonies at the White House on May 16, 1997, during which Clinton apologized to the survivors and families of the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

(Credit: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

In 2010, President Barack Obama and other federal officials apologized for another unethical, U.S.-sponsored medical study, conducted decades earlier in Guatemala. In that study, from 1946 to 1948, nearly 700 men and women—prisoners, soldiers, mental patients—were intentionally infected with syphilis (hundreds more people were exposed to other sexually transmitted diseases as part of the study) without their knowledge or consent.

The purpose of the study was to determine whether penicillin could prevent, not just cure, syphilis infection. Some of those who became infected never received medical treatment.

The results of the study, which took place with the cooperation of Guatemalan government officials, never were published. The American public health researcher in charge of the project, Dr. John Cutler, went on to become a lead researcher in the Tuskegee experiments.

Following Cutler’s death in 2003, historian Susan Reverby uncovered the records of the Guatemala experiments while doing research related to the Tuskegee study. She shared her findings with U.S. government officials in 2010.

Soon afterward, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius issued an apology for the STD study and President Obama called the Guatemalan president to apologize for the experiments.

BY

 ELIZABETH NIX

#Tuskegee experiment #racism #tuskegee syphilis study

Moscow bemused at US space 'hysteria' as Musk taunts Russia

CC™ Global News - Anna Smolchenko 

Moscow space officials on Sunday said they were puzzled by "hysteria" around the successful SpaceX flight as Elon Musk taunted Russia and US President Donald Trump vowed to beat it to Mars. 

On Saturday, SpaceX made history by becoming the world's first commercial company to send humans into orbit, leading Russia to lose its long-held monopoly on space travel. 

Musk lobbed a jab at Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian space chief who once said Washington may one day be forced to "deliver its astronauts to the ISS by using a trampoline".  

"The trampoline is working," quipped Musk at a post-flight news conference alongside NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. 

Both men laughed. "It's an inside joke," Musk added. 

Rogozin remained conspicuously silent for most of Sunday but offered his congratulations to Bridenstine after the Crew Dragon capsule with two NASA astronauts docked with the ISS. 

"It's safe to congratulate you at this point with a successful launch and docking. Bravo!" he tweeted. 

"Please convey my sincere greetings to @elonmusk (I loved his joke) and @SpaceX team. Looking forward to further cooperation!" 

In 2014, Rogozin, then deputy prime minister, mocked the lack of a US manned flight programme after Washington announced new sanctions against Moscow which included some space industries. 

While Russia saluted the United States, it also stressed Sunday it was puzzled by the frenzy unleashed by what many hailed as the dawn of a new era. 

"We don't really understand the hysteria sparked by the successful launch of a Crew Dragon spacecraft," Roscosmos spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko said. 

"What should have happened a long time ago happened," he added, tweeting excerpts of Trump's congratulatory speech. 

Speaking at the iconic Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the flawless SpaceX launch, Trump vowed that US astronauts would return to the Moon in 2024 "to establish a permanent presence and a launching pad to Mars".  

"And the first woman on the Moon will be an American woman and the first nation to land on Mars will be the United States of America," he said.  

"We are not going to be number two anywhere."  

The Russian space agency shot back, saying it was not planning to sit idle, either.  

"Already this year we will conduct tests of two new rockets and resume our lunar programme next year," Ustimenko tweeted. 

He did not elaborate but Rogozin has earlier said the country planned to conduct a new test launch of the Angara heavy carrier rocket this autumn.  

Rogozin has also said Russia is pressing ahead with the development of its new intercontinental ballistic missile, the Sarmat, also known as Satan 2 by NATO's classification. 

In 2018, President Vladimir Putin boasted that the Sarmat was one of the new Russian weapons that could render NATO defences obsolete. 

Russia had for many years enjoyed a monopoly as the only country able to ferry astronauts, and Saturday's launch meant the loss of a sizeable income. A seat in the Soyuz costs NASA around $80 million. 

Roscosmos insisted that the US still needed Moscow.  

"It's very important to have at least two possibilities to make it to the station. Because you never know...," Ustimenko said.  

Some officials in Moscow sought to downplay the US feat." 

This is a flight to the International Space Station, not to Mars," said Alexey Pushkov, a member of the upper house of parliament.   

The Russian space programme sent the first man into space in 1961 and launched the first satellite four years earlier.  

But since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, it has been plagued by corruption scandals and a series of other setbacks, losing expensive spacecraft and satellites in recent years. 

The US launch and Musk's joke set Russian social media alight, with wits ridiculing Rogozin and the Russian space chief's name trending on Twitter.  

"How do you like this, Dmitry Rogozin?" one critic prodded.  

Source: AFP

Obasanjo tells AfDB board to ignore U.S. calls for independent investigation of Adesina

Rtd. General Olusegun Obasanjo

CC™ Global News 

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday asked the board of the African Development Bank to ignore calls for an independent investigation of Akinwumi Adesina by the U.S. 

Adesina, who is the president of the AfDB, was accused of favouritism and has been absolved of the allegations by the bank’s ethics committee. 

Obasanjo in a letter dated May 28, urged chairman of the AfDB board of governors, Kaba Niale to follow laid down processes to protect and preserve the bank.

Obasanjo said “Unfortunately, the U.S. government, through the US treasury secretary, has written a public letter (that was also distributed to the press globally) to disagree with the conclusions of the ethics committee of the board of directors and the chairman of the board of governors of the bank. 

Instead of accepting the exoneration of the president of the bank, they called for an independent investigation.

“This is outside of the rules, laws, procedures and governance systems of the bank. The U.S. treasury secretary disparaged the bank and ridiculed the entire governance system of the bank which has been in place since 1964.

“This is unprecedented in the annals of the African Development Bank Group. If we do not rise up and defend the African Development Bank, this might mean the end of the African Development Bank, as its governance will be hijacked away from Africa.”

African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson condemns murder of George Floyd by racist U.S. police officer

H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat

CC™ Breaking News 

The Chairperson of the African Union [AU] Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat strongly condemns the murder of George Floyd that occurred in the United States of America at the hands of law enforcement officers, and wishes to extend his deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

This was contained in a statement of the Chairperson following the murder of George Floyd in the USA issued on his behalf by the spokesperson of the Chairperson of the Commission, Ms. Ebba Kalondo.

The police officer holds his knee to George Floyd's neck as he snuffs the life out of him

Mahamat recalled the historic Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) Resolution on Racial Discrimination in the United States of America made by African Heads of State and Government, at the OAU’s First Assembly Meeting held in Cairo, Egypt from 17 to 24 July 1964.

The Chairperson of the African Union Commission firmly reaffirmed and reiterated the African Union’s rejection of the continuing discriminatory practices against Black citizens of the United States of America.

He further urges the authorities in the United States of America to intensify their efforts to ensure the total elimination of all forms of discrimination based on race or ethnic origin.

El Rufai under mounting pressure as ethnic cleansing by Fulani militia continues unabated

Governor Nasir El-Rufai - Kaduna State

CC™ Breaking News

Information from sources within the government house in Kaduna State indicates the political leaders and district heads from Kajuru Local Government Area [LGA] are slated to release a press statement stating that the steady attacks and/or invasion by the Fulani militia on the Adara people of south Kaduna were farmer/herder clashes – and not genocide or Fulani invasion of the Adara communities. 

The Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasiru El Rufai is reported to be under severe pressure by the international community and the presidency to halt what appears a steady stream of attacks by the Fulani militia into the Adara communities of Kajuru LGA in Kaduna.Our source indicates the Governor who was peeved by the mounting pressure opted to summon all the political leaders including district heads from Kajuru LGA.  

The leaders included members from State Assembly, House of Representative, political appointees, and the special adviser of internal security. Nobody from Adara community was invited to the meeting by Governor El-Rufai.

The Governor mandated the group to put heads together with a view to bringing an end to the violence. The group were also told that the violence were not simply targeted killings of an ethnic group, but rather a clash between two groups with economic stakes on the line. 

Meanwhile over 50,000 persons from Adara communities have relocated away from their ancestral homes owing to attacks from Fulani militia. They remain refugees in their homeland.

Source: The 247UREPORTS

Trump Sows Doubt on Voting. It Keeps Some People Up at Night.

CC™ News - By Reid J. Epstein

WASHINGTON — In October, President Donald Trump declares a state of emergency in major cities in battleground states, like Milwaukee and Detroit, banning polling places from opening.

A week before the election, Attorney General William Barr announces a criminal investigation into the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden.

After Biden wins a narrow Electoral College victory, Trump refuses to accept the results, won’t leave the White House and declines to allow the Biden transition team customary access to agencies before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

Far-fetched conspiracy theories? Not to a group of worst-case scenario planners — mostly Democrats, but some anti-Trump Republicans as well — who have been gaming out various doomsday options for the 2020 presidential election. Outraged by Trump and fearful that he might try to disrupt the campaign before, during and after Election Day, they are engaged in a process that began in the realm of science fiction but has nudged closer to reality as Trump and his administration abandon long-standing political norms.

The anxiety has intensified in recent weeks as the president continues to attack the integrity of mail voting and insinuate that the election system is rigged, while his Republican allies ramp up efforts to control who can vote and how. Just last week, Trump threatened to withhold funding from states that defy his wishes on expanding mail voting, while also amplifying unfounded claims of voter fraud in battleground states.

“In the eight to 10 months I’ve been yapping at people about this stuff, the reactions have gone from, ‘Don’t be silly, that won’t happen,’ to an increasing sense of, ‘You know, that could happen,’” said Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University law professor. Earlier this year, Brooks convened an informal group of Democrats and never-Trump Republicans to brainstorm about ways the Trump administration could disrupt the election and to think about ways to prevent it.

But the anxiety is hardly limited to outside groups.

Marc Elias, a Washington lawyer who leads the Democratic National Committee’s legal efforts to fight voter suppression measures, said not a day goes by when he doesn’t field a question from senior Democratic officials about whether Trump could postpone or cancel the election. Prodded by allies to explain why not, Elias wrote a column on the subject in late March for his website — and it drew more traffic than anything he’d ever published.

But changing the date of the election is not what worries Elias. The bigger threat in his mind is the possibility that the Trump administration could act in October to make it harder for people to vote in urban centers in battleground states — possibilities, he said, that include declaring a state of emergency, deploying the National Guard or forbidding gatherings of more than 10 people.

Such events could serve to depress or discourage turnout in pockets of the country that reliably vote for Democrats.

“That to me is that frame from which all doomsday scenarios then go,” he said.

To ward off such a scenario, Elias is engaged in multiple lawsuits aimed at making it easier to cast absentee ballots by mail and making in-person voting more available, either on Election Day or in the preceding weeks.

Biden, for his part, has suggested more than once that Trump might try to disrupt or delay the election. And his campaign grew very concerned this month when it was announced that election security briefings, which in past cycles had been delivered to candidates by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, would now be the province of the director of national intelligence. That post is currently held by John Ratcliffe, a Trump ally who was confirmed to the position Thursday. Ratcliffe was among the president’s chief Fox News defenders during the Russia investigation and has been a sharp critic of the FBI.

“Since 2016, Donald Trump has shown that he is always ready to sacrifice our basic democratic norms for his personal and political interests,” said Bob Bauer, a Biden senior adviser who is the campaign’s chief lawyer. “We assume he may well resort to any kind of trick, ploy or scheme he can in order to hold onto his presidency. We have built a strong program to plan for and address every possibility to ensure that he does not succeed.”

Trump has said he expects the election to be held Nov. 3 as scheduled, and under federal law he does not have the power to unilaterally postpone it. But a recent comment by the president’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner about whether the election would be held as scheduled — “I’m not sure I can commit one way or another,” he said — renewed fears that Trump would try to move the election or discredit the balloting process if he thought he was going to lose.

Trump’s campaign derided the anxiety over the election as irrational hand-wringing driven by Democrats’ inability to accept his victory four years ago.

“Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams and the entire Democratic Party refused to accept the results of their elections and pushed the Russia collusion conspiracy theory for years,” said Tim Murtaugh, communications director for Trump’s reelection campaign. “Now Joe Biden’s allies have formed actual conspiracy committees where they’ll work up new hoaxes to further undermine our democracy. They are wasting their time. As President Trump has repeatedly said, the election will happen on Nov. 3.”

The president attacked mail balloting again Sunday morning, with a baseless claim that it would lead to “the greatest Rigged Election in history.”

Some Democrats have been cautious about voicing their warnings about potential electoral calamities too loudly, for fear that even the suggestion of a tainted election would depress turnout.

“You don’t want to set up a perception based on the theory that elections don’t matter,” said Ari Rabin-Havt, who was a deputy campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders. “You don’t want to tell supporters that nothing you do matters because this guy is going to screw it up.”

Brooks’ group at Georgetown is not the only one forecasting doomsday scenarios for the election. Ian Bassin, executive director of Protect Democracy, a nonprofit group dedicated to resisting authoritarian government, last year convened the National Task Force on Election Crises, a bipartisan 51-member group that includes Republicans such as Michael Chertoff, the former homeland security secretary. The group is dedicated to envisioning and presenting plans for scenarios that could wreck the 2020 presidential election.

The task force began with 65 possibilities before narrowing the list early this year to eight potential calamities, including natural disasters, a successful foreign hack of voting machines, a major candidate’s challenging the election and seeking to delegitimize the results, and a president who refuses to participate in a peaceful transfer of power.

Among the scenarios they eliminated when making final cuts in January, ironically, was a killer pandemic that ravaged the country and kept people homebound before Election Day. After the coronavirus struck, the group reconstituted to publish pandemic-related recommendations for state governments to follow.

The group also produced a 200-page document, which has not been made public. Several members said they had worked on specific scenarios but had not seen the complete draft. They said that while many of the possibilities envisioned an incumbent president using the forces of government to his advantage, the report’s authors had been careful not to make the document explicitly about Trump.

“We hope there are safeguards in place,” said Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who participated in the task force. “Let’s face it, those safeguards ought to include the Senate of the United States and the Justice Department. There’s reason to be nervous.”

Edward Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University who participated in the task force, said the 2020 election could resemble the contest of 1876, which nearly split the country a decade after the Civil War.

That election was not decided until Gov. Samuel Tilden of New York conceded to Gov. Rutherford Hayes of Ohio two days before the inauguration. The outgoing president, Ulysses Grant, had made contingency plans for martial law because he was concerned there would be simultaneous competing inaugurations.

“We’re setting ourselves up for an election where neither side can concede defeat,” Foley said. “That suggests that the desire to dispute the outcome is going to be higher than ever.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2020 The New York Times Company

The Irony of Psychological Projection: Trump says Jeff Sessions was not 'mentally qualified' to be attorney general

CC™ News - By Martin Pengelly

Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions’ playground fight continued into Sunday. In an interview with Sinclair TV, Trump said Sessions had not been “mentally qualified” to be his first attorney general. 

Now running for his old Senate seat in Alabama, Sessions continues to doggedly protest that only he could properly implement the president’s agenda. 

The undignified exchange began on Friday night. Still sore over Sessions’ recusal from the Russia investigation in early 2017, and having recorded the Sinclair interview at the White House earlier that day, Trump told voters not to trust his former ally. 

Sessions objected but insisted, loyally, that he was the right pick for Trump supporters. 

Then on Saturday Trump hit back harder, saying Sessions “ruined many lives” and appearing to equate his former aide with the “dirty cops” of the Russia investigation, whom the president referred to as “slime”. 

Sessions recused himself from the investigation into Russian election interference after failing to inform Congress of contacts with the Russian ambassador during the election campaign. 

His deputy, Rod Rosenstein, appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel after Trump fired James Comey, the director of the FBI who had overseen the investigation since its beginnings under Barack Obama. 

After a near-two-year investigation, Mueller did not find a conspiracy between Trump and Russia but did lay out links with Moscow and possible instances of obstruction of justice by the president, whom he did not exonerate. 

“Mr President,” Sessions began a Saturday tweet. “Alabama can and does trust me, as do conservatives across the country. Perhaps you’ve forgotten.” 

The message did not calm Trump, who spent his White House evening firing off abuse and retweeting messages in questionable taste about Sessions, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Stacey Abrams, Hillary Clinton and others. 

“They trusted me,” Sessions went on, “when I stepped out and put that trust on the line for you. You and I fight for the same agenda. Tommy Tuberville [his Senate opponent, ahead in the polls, endorsed by Trump] is so weak he won’t debate me and too weak for Alabama. 

“Alabama will vote for you this fall, but Alabama will not take orders from Washington on who to send to the Senate.” 

The message was in keeping with Sessions’ campaign tactic of maintaining extreme loyalty to the man who regularly humiliated him in office and, after the 2018 midterm elections, fired him. He succeeded only in poking the bear. 

“Jeff,” Trump wrote, “you had your chance and you blew it. Recused yourself … and ran for the hills. You had no courage, and ruined many lives. The dirty cops, and others, got caught by better and stronger people than you. Hopefully this slime will pay a big price. 

“You should drop out of the race and pray that super liberal Doug Jones … gets beaten badly. He voted for impeachment based on “ZERO”. Disgraced Alabama. Coach Tuberville will be a GREAT Senator!” 

Tuberville, who once coached the Auburn Tigers, a college football power, will face Sessions in a run-off in July. Jones won Sessions’ old seat in December 2017, beating a hugely controversial Republican, Roy Moore. The Democrat faces an uphill battle to keep the seat in November.

Doggedly, Sessions still wasn’t done. 

“I will never apologize for following the law and serving faithfully and with honor,” said the immigration hardliner who was once denied a federal judgeship over accusations of racism, who was the first senator to endorse Trump and who mentored Stephen Miller, Trump’s far-right White House adviser. 

“Neither of us knew about the phony investigation into our campaign until after I was sworn in. As you will recall, I recommended firing James Comey from the very beginning.” 

That was Saturday night. Sunday morning brought cold comfort. 

“Jeff Sessions was a disaster as attorney general,” the president told the syndicated Full Measure show, in a rambling complaint about the Russia investigation. 

“Should have never been attorney general, was not qualified. He’s not mentally qualified to be attorney general. He was the biggest problem.”  

Source: The Guradian

Company sponsoring the controversial visit of Chinese doctors to Nigeria gives details on their stay in the West African country

President Muhammadu Buhari

CC™ Global News - By Wale Odunsi

The company that funded the trip of the Chinese “medical doctors” to Nigeria, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), has provide further explanation of their trip. 

CCECC said the team has been focusing only on assigned duties in Nigeria. The firm said this in a statement posted on its Twitter page on Friday. It explained that the doctors were not treating Nigerians positive for coronavirus.

CCECC also stressed that the team has assisted in setting up isolation centres and has provided medical support and training to its staff.

The statement said after a 14-day quarantine and necessary tests, the medical team has been carrying out its “assigned mission”.

“The medical personnel are in Nigeria at the instance of CCECC Nigeria and they have been at all times under the care and accommodation of CCECC. During their stay in Nigeria, they have complied with all known immigration and health protocols.”

The company reiterated that “the mandate of the team, as mutually agreed with all stakeholders, does not cover treatment of COVID-19 cases”.

It said in dealing with both the CCECC and the Nigerian health officials, the doctors only play an advisory role.

“They would continue to engage with CCECC management and staff will always be willing to engage with Nigerian health officials and other stakeholders whenever and wherever it is necessary to do so.”

Full statement below:

Source: Daily Post

An ongoing vestige of Nasir El-Rufai's ethnic cleansing: Fulani terrorists torch six villages and leave scores dead in their wake

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai

CC™ Breaking News 

Kaduna (Nigeria) - Credible sources indicate that the Adara community in Kajuru Local Government Area [LGA] has suffered another gruesome attack by the Fulani militia. 

The attack began a little before 2am local time. The Fulani militia armed with AK47 and other automatic weapons simultaneously launched the attack on six Adara villages – killing countless numbers of children and women. 

This is according to the leadership of Adara people. 

In the process, some of the Adara villages were completely hazed down by the militias. The exact number of dead were not immediately available owing to the remoteness of the area. It is located Kala – the biggest settlement in the area. It shares a boundary with Kauru LGA.  

The attached area is a farming community. 

The Adara community has become a repeat victim of the Fulani attacks. In February 2019, an estimated 280 Adara people lost their lives to Fulani militia. This was following Governor El Rufai statement that about 130 Fulanis were killed by Adara people. He made the statement to President Buhari publicly at the Presidential villa. The resulting attacks rendered 15,000 Adara people homeless. 

A source who witnessed the attack indicated that the evening before the attack, the community witnessed helicopters that were hovering around the Adara villages – “going and coming“. The community grew suspicious of the helicopter. “Before each attack, there is always a helicopter that will hover around.“ 

The community members as a result ran to the neighboring in Doka. “All of them ran to Doka“. 

The source added that the attack was coming from Laduga, a Fulani settlement area. Previously, a cache of weapons were discovered by the military at Laduga. 

Source: NewsWire

Trump threatens to permanently cut off funding to the World Health Organization even though the US is $200 million in arrears

CC™ Insight - By Salvatore Di Nolfi 

United States President Donald Trump wrote a letter to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization. 

The letter states that unless the organization makes "major substantive improvements" in the next 30 days, the US will permanently cut off funding and reconsider membership.

• On April 14, Trump announced he was halting US funding to WHO while his administration performed a review of the organization over what he called its "failed response to the COVID-19 outbreak."
• "The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China," Trump wrote in the letter. "My Administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the organization."     

• President Donald Trump has written a letter to the World Health Organization's chief that says unless the agency makes "major substantive improvements" in the next month, the US will permanently cut off funding and reconsider membership.

The lengthy letter was addressed to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Trump shared the letter in a tweet Monday. It leveled a series of accusations against the organization and compared Tedros' response with that of his predecessor Gro Harlem Brundtland during the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s.

"In 2003, in response to the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China, Director-General Harlem Brundtland boldly declared the World Health Organization's first emergency travel advisory in 55 years, recommending against travel to and from the disease epicenter in southern China," the letter said. 

"She also did not hesitate to criticize China for endangering global health by attempting to cover up the outbreak through its usual playbook of arresting whistleblowers and censoring media," the letter continued. "Many lives could have been saved had you followed Dr. Brundtland's example."

Source: Keystone via Associated Press (AP)