Trump suggests using light, heat as coronavirus treatment

SITTING UNDER A HEAT LAMP WILL NOT CURE YOU

TRUMP ALSO SUGGESTED INJECTING YOURSELF WITH DISINFECTANT, LIKE BLEACH, WHICH WILL KILL YOU

BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/23/20
President Trump on Thursday suggested medical experts should study exposing the human body to heat and light as a treatment for the coronavirus during Thursday's White House briefing by the president's task force on the virus.

Trump's remarks followed a presentation from William Bryan, undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security.

Bryan presented the results of a study that showed the virus deteriorates more quickly when subjected to higher temperatures and humidity — a finding that quickly drew skepticism from other experts on social media and cable television given outbreaks in a number of places with warm climates, such as Singapore and Brazil.

Bryan presented data that found how long the virus can live on solid surfaces or in the air was cut significantly under high temperatures, higher humidity and when exposed to sunlight. He said his office was also studying how certain disinfectants might kill the virus more effectively than others, referencing isopropyl alcohol and bleach.
Trump latched onto the findings, inquiring multiple times about harnessing the light and heat as part of a potential cure.

"So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn't been checked but you're going to test it," Trump said. "And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting."

Trump also asked if there was a way to use disinfectants on the body "by injection inside or almost a cleaning."

Pretty interesting suggestion from the president of the United States here. pic.twitter.com/o2UmDRVpW5— Joe Sonka #StayHome (@joesonka) April 23, 2020
Bryan later cautioned that the agency's findings did not mean that sunlight will kill the virus, nor should going outdoors supersede social distancing guidelines put in place by state and federal leaders.

"It would be irresponsible for us to say that we feel the summer is just going to totally kill the virus … that is not the case," he said.

But he occasionally sent mixed messages, telling one reporter he would personally opt to hold a family gathering outside rather than inside during the summer and explaining that sunlight could have an effect at getting rid of the virus on playground equipment or other surfaces.

Asked if it was dangerous to give the impression Americans would be safe from the virus going outside, Trump doubled down on his suggestion to use the heat and light as a cure.

"Maybe you can, maybe you can’t ... I’m not a doctor. But I’m, like, a person that has a good you-know-what," Trump said, pointing to his head.

He then turned to Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, asking if she had ever heard of using "the heat and the light" to combat the coronavirus.

"Not as a treatment," Birx said. "I mean, certainly ... when you have a fever it helps your body respond. But I’ve not seen heat or light."

"I think it’s a great thing to look at," Trump said.

The U.S. has more than 873,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, including in a number of warm weather and humid climates, further raising questions about the sunlight's impact on the disease. New Orleans was one of the country's first hot spots, while Florida and Georgia have seen increasing cases.

Countries located near the tropics have also dealt with infections.

Trump mulls tying USPS changes to emergency coronavirus loan: report

BY J. EDWARD MORENO - 04/23/20

© Getty Images

The Trump administration is considering tying changes to the U.S. Postal Service to the emergency coronavirus loan from Congress, according to The Washington Post.

Treasury Department officials told the Post they are speaking with senior officials at the USPS about using the $18 billion loan allocated to the Postal Service by Congress as leverage to influence the way the agency charges for package delivery.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is also reportedly seeking to influence the hiring process for senior officials at USPS.

Trump has often said that the way the Postal Service is run benefits companies like Amazon. The administration would like USPS to increase how much it charges for package deliveries in general and double what it charges Amazon.

Congress issued $10 billion in loans to USPS in the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill passed last month. Mnuchin rejected a bipartisan Senate proposal to give the Postal Service a bailout in early negotiations, according to the Post.

UPS and FedEx told the Post they are in favor of USPS maintaining flexibility, but would welcome accountability from the agency.

The Postal Service is projecting a $13 billion shortfall due to the pandemic while employees remain classified as essential. According to the American Postal Workers Union, 1,219 workers of the Postal Service’s 630,000-person workforce have tested positive for the coronavirus and 44 workers have died.

Maxine Waters dedicates legislation to sister dying of coronavirus
BY TAL AXELROD - THE HILL - 04/23/20

© Greg Nash

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) dedicated Congress’s $484 billion relief package to her sister, who she said is dying from the coronavirus.

“I not only rise in support of this legislation,” Waters said on the House floor. “I also would like to rise in support of what we’re doing for the health care enhancement act in this bill. And I’m going to take a moment to dedicate this legislation to my dear sister who is dying in a hospital in St. Louis, Mo., right now infected by the coronavirus.” 

Rep. Maxine Waters: "I am going to take a moment to dedicate this legislation to my dear sister who is dying in a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, right now infected by the Coronavirus." pic.twitter.com/sX58UK1A3L— The Hill (@thehill) April 23, 2020

Waters touted the relief package that has already passed the Senate and is currently being debated in the House. The legislation provides $370 billion in funding for small businesses as well as $100 billion for hospitals and coronavirus testing.

Her remarks were the first she's made that confirmed her sister was seriously ill with the coronavirus, which has infected more than 845,000 people in the U.S. and killed nearly 47,000.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) confirmed Thursday that her eldest brother died of the virus.

Waters, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, said the next relief package must provide more funding for people hurting by the exploding economic fallout of the pandemic.

“Congress must now immediately turn to the next package of legislation to provide relief during the pandemic,” she said. “We need to do much more to help renters, homeowners, people experiencing homelessness and mom and pop landlords.”

US announces new funding for Greenland in push for stronger Arctic presence

© Getty Images

The U.S. is providing $12.1 million to Greenland in an effort to establish new diplomatic ties and increase its presence in the Arctic, the State Department announced on Thursday.

The funding was welcomed by Greenland’s government but criticized by officials in Denmark, its parent state that had brushed off President Trump's offer to buy the island last year.

“They have clearly crossed the line,” Karsten Honge, a member of the foreign affairs committee for the Socialist People’s Party in Denmark, told Reuters.
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“It’s completely unheard of that a close ally tries to create division between Greenland and Denmark this way.”

Greenland's government said in a statement Thursday the funding will go to civilian projects, including the mineral industry, tourism and education and be implemented “primarily as consultancy and advisory assistance from U.S. experts.”

But a senior State Department official said the funding is meant to safeguard U.S. interests for a “secure and stable Arctic” and counter threats from Russia and China.

The official said both Russia and China are on a pathway to “clash with the interests of the United States and our allies and our partners” in the Arctic.

The U.S. is expected to open a consulate in Greenland’s capital city Nuuk later this summer, the first American diplomatic presence there since 1953.

USA

The five lawmakers who voted against $484B in coronavirus relief

The $484 billion relief package passed in a 388-5 vote just two days after the Senate unanimously approved it. The measure provides critical funding for small business loans, hospitals and virus testing. It now heads to President Trump’s desk for his expected signature.

The sole Democrat to cast a no vote was liberal freshman firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), who argued the series of relief packages passed by Congress have not gone far enough to provide assistance to working-class people or safeguards to ensure mom-and-pop businesses receive funding before big companies.

“It is a joke when Republicans say they have urgency around this bill. The only folks that they have urgency around are [chain restaurants] like Ruth’s Chris Steak House and Shake Shack. Those are the people getting assistance in this bill,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a fiery floor speech before the vote, where she noted that her Bronx and Queens district has been among the hardest hit by the coronavirus.

“You are not trying to fix this bill for mom and pops,” she added.

READ THE REST HERE
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/494419-the-five-lawmakers-who-voted-against-484b-in-coronavirus-relief

DID RUTH CHRIS STEAKHOUSE GET CANADIAN BAILOUT LIKE THEY GOT IN THE USA

On The Trail: Trump's demands for loyalty extend to scientists

TRUMPS REVISIONIST LOYALTY DEMANDS OUT DOES STALIN

BY REID WILSON - 04/23/2020

The Trump administration's decision to sideline one of the government’s top vaccine specialists at the height of a global coronavirus pandemic has shocked scientists and science advocates who say the president is placing a greater value on loyalty to himself than on the facts and data that could save lives.

The administration this week forced out Rick Bright, the head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and an acting deputy assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for preparedness and response.

BARDA, the nation's top vaccine research organization, had entered into a partnership with Johnson & Johnson just weeks ago to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus that has killed tens of thousands of Americans.

Bright's ouster came after he voiced skepticism that two drugs President Trump had called potential “game changers” in the battle against the coronavirus — hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine — would actually prove effective.

Trump urged the Food and Drug Administration to approve the two treatments for use in Covid-19 patients in March, and Fox News hosts had been touting their potential — until several studies around the world were halted because the drugs did not show promise in treating Covid-19 or, in the case of a study of Veterans Administration patients given the drugs, fatality rates were actually higher.

Bright said his ouster was retaliation for speaking out in internal administration debates.

“I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit,” Bright said in a statement. “Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the Administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit.”

Trump said Wednesday he had never heard of Bright.

But scientists said Bright's ouster fits a broader pattern that Trump established in the earliest days of his administration to bend hard data to his own benefit — or to squelch the scientists who challenged his beliefs on climate change and environmental regulations.

“The Trump administration has consistently worked to disregard inconvenient science, and it doesn't take much to be inconvenient,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. “This can have immediate and possibly fatal impacts if it means that ineffective or harmful drugs are mindlessly hawked.”

The pattern has continued as the coronavirus pandemic has spread. Trump initially downplayed the threat of the virus, even as the World Health Organization declared it a public health emergency of international concern. Trump later put a hold on American funding for the global agency.

When a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nancy Messonnier, said in February that the spread of the virus to the United States was “inevitable,” Trump threatened to fire her.

When Trump put Vice President Mike Pence in control of the administration’s response, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, canceled several appearances on television shows. CDC director Robert Redfield has walked back statements or clashed with the media — as recently as Thursday — after his comments had been construed in ways that seem to contradict Trump's rosy forecasts. Trump himself has retweeted a post that included a hashtag to fire Fauci.

“In the pandemic, there's no greater time when you actually need the expertise up front. Nobody expects there isn't going to be any politics, but manipulating the information and suppressing the information is deadly,” said Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Literally every person in the country is put at immediate risk.”

In a paper to be published Thursday, Rosenberg's group will report on a survey from last year showing high levels of dissatisfaction among government scientists who say they are demonized and their expertise dismissed.

A White House spokesperson denied any distance between Trump and his scientific advisors, including Fauci, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx and FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn.

“Despite the media’s ridiculous efforts to somehow create distance between the President and his top health experts, it is simply fake news. President Trump has relied on and consulted with Dr. Adams, Dr. Birx, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Hahn, Dr. Redfield, and many others as he has confronted this unforeseen, unprecedented crisis and put the full power of the federal government to work to slow the spread, save lives, and place this great country on a data-driven path to opening up again,” the spokesman, Judd Deere, said in an email.

For years, the Trump administration has been accused of altering studies, deleting mentions of climate change, stifling its own scientists and obscuring government data. The Union of Concerned Scientists has documented 126 such incidents since Trump took office in 2017; the Sabin Center counts 417 events, the most recent of which was Bright’s dismissal from BARDA.


Trump’s habit of dismissing scientists in the name of political expediency is a potential threat to longstanding international cooperation between America and its chief allies, all of whom are the world's most significant funders of scientific research.

“Globally, we have been unbelievably important as a very large science enterprise with great freedom to pursue research, to interact with industry and to work internationally,” Rosenberg said. “The U.S. is no longer the trusted partner that we once were, because nobody knows whether we're going to be there.”

He said even tossing around ideas such as defunding the World Health Organization or pulling out of international agreements “signals to the world that the U.S. as an international technical and scientific partner is going to change with the political winds to a much greater extent that it has before.”

“In other words, we are an unreliable partner,” Rosenberg said.

Trump has touted his own scientific knowledge. In a visit to CDC headquarters in early March, Trump said his hosts had asked him how he knew so much about the virus he had been downplaying just days earlier.

“I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it,” Trump said. “Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”

Fauci is perhaps the most intriguing case study in how Trump treats scientists, largely because he has been around Washington long enough to carry a brand of his own. He has alternated between insisting there is no distance between himself and the president who heeds his advice and making statements that directly contradict what Trump has said, sometimes only moments before.

On Thursday, Trump told reporters twice that the virus “may not come back at all” in the fall, citing “ten different people” without naming them. Fauci said he was “convinced” that the virus will resurge in the fall, citing Redfield.

Morgan Chalfant contributed reporting.

Actor John Cho: 'Stand up for your fellow Americans' amid racism over the coronavirus pandemic

BY MARINA PITOFSKY - 04/23/20 

© Getty Images

Actor John Cho penned a new op-ed addressing racism experienced by Asian American people amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“I called my parents a few nights ago to tell them to be cautious when stepping out of the house, because they might be targets of verbal or even physical abuse. It felt so strange. Our roles had flipped,” the "Star Trek" and "Harold & Kumar" star wrote in the piece published Wednesday.

“My plea mirrored the admonitions I received from them as a child growing up in Houston. The world, they cautioned, was hostile and it viewed us as strangers. So they warned me to stick close to my family. Close to my kind,” he continued.

At the end of last month, attacks against Asian American people skyrocketed to approximately 100 per day, according to Rep. Judy Chu.

Cho said that as he became a famous actor, “In some ways, I began to lead a life devoid of race.”

“But I’ve learned that a moment always comes along to remind you that your race defines you above all else,” he added.

He remarked on a time in 2004 when he was traveling with fellow actor Kal Penn and Penn’s friend, identified as Gabe. Gabe, who is white, forgot to remove a hunting knife from his backpack. Cho and Gabe were not stopped by airport security, while Penn, who is the child of Indian immigrants, had his bag searched.

“Asian Americans are experiencing such a moment right now. The pandemic is reminding us that our belonging is conditional. One moment we are Americans, the next we are all foreigners, who ‘brought’ the virus here,” Cho wrote in the op-ed.

“Like fame, the ‘model minority’ myth can provide the illusion of ‘raceless-ness.’ Putting select Asians on a pedestal silences those who question systemic injustice. Our supposed success is used as proof that the system works — and if it doesn’t work for you, it must be your fault,” he added.

Cho, who was born in South Korea, also remarked on his U.S. naturalization ceremony in 1990.

“I remember being surprised by the judge at the ceremony asking me whether I would defend my country in uniform if called upon. I wasn’t expecting that question, though my friends and I had been wondering about a possible draft, and I took my time to truly consider it. I answered yes and I meant it,” Cho said.

“I claimed the citizenship my parents wanted for me and I think I’ve spent my life earning it. I’m not going to let anyone tell me or anyone who looks like me that we are not really American,” he added.

Cho called on everyone to reject hate in their communities, saying: “Please don’t minimize the hate or assume it’s somewhere far away. It’s happening close to you. If you see it on the street, say something. If you hear it at work, say something. If you sense it in your family, say something. Stand up for your fellow Americans.”

Inequities in COVID-19 are tragic but preventable

BY ELAINE HERNANDEZ, COURTNEY BOEN AND RICHARD M. CARPIANO, 

OPINION CONTRIBUTORS — 04/23/20 

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

© Getty Images

We’re told that pandemics are “great equalizers,” impacting rich and poor alike. Yet black, Hispanic, and lower income individuals are dying from COVID-19 at disproportionately high rates.

For those of us who study health inequities, this tragic news is unsurprising. It is rooted in policies and practices that reinforce racial, ethnic and class inequalities. These factors predate the pandemic, but also put people at greater risk of COVID-19.

Failing to act is counter to extensive research that demonstrates how policies can narrow health inequities. Paid sick leave polices have an equalizing effect and reduce disease spread. Economic policies like the Earned Income Tax Credit and minimum wage increases can improve public health and reduce risk of death from multiple causes. Uniform health screening and treatment protocols improve patient outcomes and minimize health inequalities. Even initiatives like mandatory seat belt laws and smoking bans can reduce inequities in health risks.

The question is whether we have the will to use this knowledge and act. Here are approaches to address underlying social and economic conditions that put communities at health risk from COVID-19 and other causes.

Establish Worker ProtectionsTo prevent infection spread, we need worker protections (including paid sick leave and livable wage laws) for all. These are especially important for our most vulnerable essential workers, including grocery, warehouse, and care workers.

People in unstable jobs and without access to paid sick days face increased risk of poor health, both from chronic disease and COVID-19. Black, Hispanic, and low-income individuals are more likely to hold such jobs compared to white and higher income persons. Stable, living wage jobs afford people the resources they need to meet basic health needs, and paid sick leave allows workers to care for themselves and others without worry of losing their income or job.

Deploy Uniform Testing Protocols

We need uniform infection and antibody testing, regardless of race, income, or insurance status. Community and drive-through testing sites are disproportionately located in high-income, white areas, despite higher infection risk in poor and predominately black and Hispanic neighborhoods. And patients with COVID-19 symptoms are less likely to be tested if they are black.

These patterns mirror prior evidence. For example, educational and income disparities in screening rates emerged when mammograms for cancer became available. And when being treated for pain, providers are less likely to prescribe pain medications to black versus white patients.

Equalize Access to Health Care

We must ensure equitable access to health care and reduce administrative burdens for people to enroll. Concerns about acquiring COVID-19 and incurring costs may mean many avoid seeking care for ongoing or new health problems.

Health care systems should also share treatment protocols—including telemedicine and innovative clinical care models—to lessen the burden on providers to reinvent the wheel, while also reducing bias and expanding access to quality care.

And within hospitals and clinics, because black, Latino, and low-income individuals are more likely to be in poor health prior to COVID-19 infection, we need carefully-designed protocols that avoid exacerbating inequities in survival.

Provide Social and Economic Stability

Economic security is critical for health. Federal and state economic relief policies must equitably address inequalities in social and economic conditions that shaped health risks long before the pandemic.

Consider that unsafe and substandard housing affect residents’ chronic disease risk and ability to socially distance safely. Black, Hispanic, and lower income individuals are more likely to live in such places.

Meanwhile, discrimination and other daily stressors increase chances for heart disease, an important risk factor for COVID-19 death. Black, Hispanic, and lower income persons have especially high stress levels. These examples show how inequities in social and economic conditions due to racism and other inequalities shape risk for COVID-19 and related complications.

COVID-19 may be new, but the inequities it produces are not. If we want to alter recurring patterns—for COVID-19 and other health issues—we must address the social and economic conditions that put people at risk of health risks.

A pandemic reminds us that our lives—and fates—are interconnected. It also spotlights existing inequalities that unfairly leave the most vulnerable bearing the greatest economic and human loss. It’s time to decide what we’re willing to do to change that.

Elaine Hernandez (PhD, MPH) is an Assistant Professor of sociology at Indiana University-Bloomington. She examines how health inequalities emerge and persist across generations, as well as policy approaches to ameliorate them. 

Courtney Boen (PhD, MPH) is an Assistant Professor of sociology and demography at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines the patterns and drivers of racial and social class inequalities in population health. She previously worked in public health policy at the state and local levels.

Richard M. Carpiano (PhD, MPH) is Professor of Public Policy and Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. His research focuses on social, economic, community, and policy factors that impact health and health disparities.

Coronavirus: UK Doctors launch legal action over government's PPE guidance

Meenal Viz and Nishant Joshi, a husband and wife expecting a child, have been exposed to patients with coronavirus.

Thursday 23 April 2020, UK

paramedic wears PPE

Two doctors are launching legal action against the government's advice over personal protective equipment (PPE).

Meenal Viz and Nishant Joshi, who are married and expecting a baby, have been exposed to patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

According to their solicitors, Bindmans, the couple are concerned that current PPE guidance and availability is inadequate to protect them from infection.

Paramedics and staff at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital wearing various items of PPE

In a statement, Dr Viz and Dr Joshi said: "We are incredibly concerned at the ever-growing numbers of healthcare workers who are becoming seriously unwell and dying due to COVID-19.

"It is the government's duty to protect its healthcare workers, and there is great anxiety amongst staff with regards to safety protocols that seem to change without rhyme or reason."

There has been a shortage of clinical gowns in some areas

Public Health England, which responded to the legal action on behalf of the government, said UK government guidance was "consistent" with advice given by World Health Organisation.

A spokesman for PHE said: "The safety of those working on the frontline in health and social care is our number one priority. The UK guidance, written with NHS leaders and agreed by all 4 CMOs, in consultation with royal and medical colleges, recommends the safest level of personal protective equipment (PPE).

"The WHO has confirmed that UK guidance is consistent with what it recommends for the highest risk procedures."

It comes after a flight carrying PPE - urgently needed by front line health workers as they treat COVID-19 patients in the UK - arrived from Turkey yesterday following days of delays.

The total consignment of 84 tonnes includes 400,000 clinical gowns, but it is not clear how much of it was on the flight.

Coronavirus: Where does the PPE in UK hospitals come from?

On Tuesday, Sky News revealed Britain only made a formal request to Turkey over the consignment on Sunday after Robert Jenrick, the housing minister, said the equipment was en route.

The delay has caused embarrassment for the government, which is already under significant pressure because of a shortage of gowns and other protective gear worn by frontline staff.

Ministers previously faced criticism over a lack of PPE given to medical workers - with one hospice boss revealing she has been forced to "beg, borrow and steal" protective gear.

Another doctor told Sky News he appealed to his own patients for PPE earlier this month after facing a shortage.

JOHN BIRCH IS PLEASED 

Trump escalates WHO fight by redirecting funds to other groups

BY LAURA KELLY - THE HILL - 04/23/20

The U.S. is starting to shift its World Health Organization (WHO) contributions to other health-focused groups, marking an escalation in President Trump’s fight with the WHO.

The move is part of the Trump administration’s efforts to punish the WHO after suspending payments to the global health body pending a “review” of its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“For every contract or dollar flowing today, we’re just taking WHO off the table,” Jim Richardson, director of foreign assistance at the State Department, said in a press briefing Wednesday. “We’re going to provide that assistance to these other organizations in order to get the job done. Our system simply can’t wait.”

“At the end of the day, this should be about saving lives, not about saving a bureaucracy,” he added.

John Barsa, who became acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) last month, said the pause in WHO funding has allowed his agency to pursue contributions to other on-the-ground initiatives.

“During this pause, what USAID and other entities are doing — we’re looking for alternate partners to carry out the important work,” Barsa said at the same briefing. “We’re going with existing programs outside of the World Health Organization.”

Barsa said a funding mechanism already exists as part of a USAID pilot program that he expects will be formalized within a week.

But global health policy experts are warning against handicapping the sole international body capable of directing a global response as the world braces for coronavirus outbreaks among some of the most vulnerable populations.

“There needs to be a moment where we look back and understand who knew what, and when,” said Amanda Glassman, executive vice president of the Center for Global Development. “But certainly I don’t think now is the time for reform and re-creation, I think we have to get through this crisis.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has started laying the groundwork for a U.S. exit from the WHO, accusing the agency’s leadership of failing to exercise authority over China for its handling of the outbreak, which originated in Wuhan.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve had to deal with the shortcomings of this organization that sits inside the United Nations,” Pompeo said in a Fox News interview Wednesday. “We need a fix. We need a structural fix for the WHO.”

The U.S. owes an estimated $203 million to the WHO for its biennial operating budget, which includes funds owed for 2019, according to the WHO. That amount is calculated by each member state’s wealth and population.

But voluntary contributions — funds provided on top of required dues — make up a bulk of the budget. The U.S. provided up to $656 million for 2018-19.

State Department officials suggest moving contributions away from the WHO could be permanent.

Glassman, of the Center for Global Development, called this a “dumb idea.”

“No existing program can replace the work of the WHO,” she said in an email, noting that individual organizations can’t coordinate large-scale projects like vaccine development.

“A U.S. non-governmental organization is not able to obtain and share genetic sequences from around the world that enable a fit-for-purpose COVID-19 or influenza vaccine to protect U.S. citizens,” she said. “A U.S. NGO cannot coordinate the more than 70 COVID-19 vaccine trials and their data.”

The absence of U.S. contributions to the WHO could have a ripple effect on the agency’s COVID-19 response, but it will also take away from health initiatives like HIV/AIDS prevention and vaccine programs, such as the eradication of polio.

“No agency, country, or organization could step in and do the work of WHO, particularly in the middle of a global health emergency,” said Loyce Pace, president and executive director of the Global Health Council, a consortium of nonprofit organizations, corporations and universities that work on responding to global health issues.

“To suggest that feels dangerous and irresponsible,” Pace added. “They play an essential role coordinating efforts across sectors and providing guidance across regions that would be very difficult to replace and nearly impossible to do in real time.”

Pompeo and State Department officials have increased their attacks on the WHO and its leadership, saying the director-general has failed to enforce the agency’s own policies against member nations' violations, namely China.

Pompeo has zeroed in on the WHO’s International Health Regulations (IHR), guidelines established in the wake of the 2003 SARS outbreak that instruct countries when and how they should alert the world to a possible health threat.

“We strongly believe that the Chinese Communist Party did not report the outbreak of the new coronavirus in a timely fashion to the World Health Organization,” Pompeo said Wednesday, citing the IHR guidelines.

He went on to say that the WHO also failed to call out China’s noncompliance.

The IHR guidelines “gave the director-general of the WHO encouragement and the ability to go public when a member-country wasn’t following those rules,” Pompeo said, “and that didn’t happen in this case either.”

The Trump administration says issues like those will be part of its evaluation of U.S. participation with the WHO over the 60 to 90 day suspension period, though officials said a review of the agency’s leadership is among the most pressing issues.

“There’s numerous questions in terms of the management of the World Health Organization, how they have been operating, holding member states accountable in their actions,” Barsa said. “The review is going to be all encompassing, in all manners of management and operation questions.”

The WHO has pushed back on the administration’s accusations, sharing on Twitter this week that it declared COVID-19 a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” on Jan. 30, with less than 100 cases and no deaths outside of China.

As industrialized nations work to bring the virus under control, poorer countries are beginning to see a spike in cases.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday announced a 43 percent increase in cases over the past week, The Associated Press reported, and warned that the virus could kill upward of 300,000 people and push 30 million into poverty.

Ben Weingrod, director of government relations for CARE, a global nonprofit working to eliminate poverty and hunger, said the coronavirus threat to African nations is almost beyond comprehension.

“It’s hard to almost say where the need is greatest because it is almost a different reality to what we’re seeing in the developed world,” he said, adding that the WHO should be empowered despite the political clashes.

“It is concerning to see politicization of bodies like WHO and others right now, and my hope is that people will continue to realize that there truly does need to be a coordinated global response,” he said.

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