A new low from US
The world is facing a deadly pandemic right now and in such a situation the bigger nations have a much bigger responsibility of emerging to the needs and requirements of the smaller nations to tide over the crisis situation.
The bigger and developed nations have another responsibility which they have to share at this moment and that is promoting and supporting the world health bodies so that they can provide the much needed relied and succor to the underdeveloped world.
However, in such a scenario the United States of America has fallen to a low as the Trump administration had declined to pay more than USD 60 million in dues it owes to the World Health Organisation. The US had earlier announced that it would not participate in a WHO-run project to develop and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine.
The decision to withhold roughly USD 62 million in outstanding 2020 dues to the WHO is part of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the organisation over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his allegations that the agency has been improperly influenced by China.
Though the administration officials in the US said that it will continue to participate in select WHO meetings and make one-time contributions to specific programmes during a one-year wind-down period. These programmes are the all important projects including polio eradication projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan, humanitarian relief in Libya and Syria and efforts to combat influenza.
Since, the world is facing a deadly pandemic and finding a vaccine for it was of utmost importance, the US chose to look the other way. The US administration has taken a hard stand by saying that it would not work with the coronavirus vaccine project because it doesn’t want to be constrained by multilateral groups like the WHO.
The rat race for laying hands on a vaccine for the Covid-19 pandemic has already polarized the world within the have and have-not’s and in such a scenario the stand adopted by the US smacks of its ill designs and no-concern attitude.
Interestingly, some nations have worked directly to secure supplies of vaccine, but others are pooling efforts to ensure success against a disease that has no geographical boundaries. More than 150 countries are setting up the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX.
That cooperative effort, linked with the WHO, would allow nations to take advantage of a portfolio of potential vaccines to ensure their citizens are quickly covered by whichever ones are deemed effective.
The WHO says even governments making deals with individual vaccine makers would benefit from joining COVAX because it would provide backup vaccines in case the ones being made through bilateral deals with manufacturers aren’t successful.
But the US administration it seems is defying all logic and sticking to its unwise and unruly decision, which not only repels the present world order but reflects arrogance as well.
KV Network
