Any organisation which would appoint Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador bears some scrutiny.

Exactly, there is no point defending the WHO. They have failed to stop this becoming a pandemic. Their job is to monitor diseases and advise how to stop their spread (amongst other things). They have failed miserably and should be disbanded right now.
What Trump is doing is not enough. We should all be angry at how the WHO have failed in their duties.
They are just costly medical politicians who have been found wanting. The writing on the wall should have been all the previous diseases they failed to stop the spread of. Swine flu - where a friend of mine died. Avian flu, all from similar places and all not recognised or stopped quickly enough.
Your local pharmacist is frankly more useful than the WHO. But then again so is a dog in a Chinese Market.

Red and Blue Army!

Is the right answer.

The infiltration of the WHO by China is indicative of its infiltration of many organisations in 'open' socieities....similar to Russia.....You can note the hypocrisy in attitude in response to this.

You can also notice that though Chamberlain died in 41, his spirit lives on, though thankfully not in Trump.

Apparently him not being a nice guy is important.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

It's like the UN.

Edited by Stirlingsays (15 Apr 2020 2.46pm)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Yes. Always thought it was a better thing to be than a 'useless idiot' too. Speaking of which, let's get back to Trump.

Most of us wondered what it would look like when he lost control. I worried that most obviously, a psychopath in the Oval office losing control would involve a big red button and a random pin on a map. Still could.

Trump has lost control. Political decisions are being made by health experts he clearly disagrees with, and financial decisions are being made by the Fed, who he also holds a hatred to. His role is to come out once a day and give an update, which has now turned in to a stump speech in which he defends his reputation as the bodies pile up.

So now, he acts as most petulant people do without control, and flails around wildly attacking anything he can. So he takes funding away from a global health organisation at a time of national pandemic. Or he shouts at journalists for asking why the US' response has been so poor (which tbf wasn't really his fault). Or he goes on Twitter and turns on caps lock.

How Churchillean.

If punk ever happened I'd be preaching the law, instead of listenin to Lydon lecture BBC4

Everyone deserves tolerance in this situation. Trump included. I can forgive him getting some decisions wrong. What cannot be forgiven is the politicising.

The missing point is that it is simply too early to reach any conclusions. When the WHO offered advice I have little doubt that they did so based on the consensus of their expert's conclusions and not with any political motivations at all. Now I might be wrong but this is not the time to try to find out. That comes later.

That Trump is encouraging it to be done now is the point. It achieves nothing positive at all. Other than to encourage his "base" and keep them onside in an election year. It has zilch to do with solving the crisis.

Trump has changed his stance. He said this on Twitter on Jan 24th:-

" China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!"

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.