It’s Time To Laugh
When he talks about injecting bleach and people die from accidental overdoses it is time to cry.
When he talks about a premature opening of the economy it is time for thousands of innocent covid victims to rise up from the dead and point a finger.
But when he threatens to cut off funding for WHO it is time to laugh.
What does such a petty gesture mean?
Every country in the world is a member of WHO and as a member of this organization each one of the 193 countries in the world pays an assessed contribution to the organization based on GDP and population. These dues are used for the important ongoing work of dealing with global health issues.
They make up a very small portion of WHO’s budget. In addition to assessed contributions most countries make additional voluntary contributions for special projects, also many foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contribute many millions of dollars. This is supplement by individual bequests and various fund raising activities.
Special projects within WHO have their own foundations such as PIP the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness foundation which was set up in 2011 ( in anticipation of the possibility of the kind of crisis we are now witnessing)
Last year Australia paid an assessed contribution of $5,568,389.00 and an additional voluntary contribution of $7,336,051.00.
Since the US has the highest GDP their dues are assessed higher than other countries however if it refused to pay they 11 million dollars that is overdue from 2018 and what it owes for 2019. The rest of the world — the 192 remaining countries — will pick up the slack with no real effect on operations.
It is time for the rest of the world to laugh at the cheap bastard, that infantile little man who thinks he is the sharpest knife in the drawer and whose petty ineffective little temper tantrum does nothing but make him the laughing stock of rest of the world.
