Donald Trump is dangerous. There is no shortage of examples to illustrate this reality. But with the health crisis, the individual appears in all his danger. The latest example being his attacks on the WHO (World Health Organization), which is a part of the UN.
On Tuesday, amidst the developing pandemic in the USA and with the worst yet to come, particularly in the African continent, Trump could think of nothing better than announcing his intention to suspend the US contribution to the WHO, under the pretext that its handling of the coronavirus pandemic is an attitude which, in the eyes of the American President, would be too favorable to Beijing. “Everything seems very favorable to China, this is unacceptable,” seems to be ultimately the only concern of this individual who, like his friend Bolsonaro and indeed Johnson, was slow to recognize the magnitude of the health crisis and take seriously the WHO’s warnings. This is not the first time the WHO has “clashed” with representatives of capitalist forces. Attacks against the WHO are not new; at the end of the 1970s, when the WHO proposed to produce cheaper medications, the pharmaceutical industry rose to the challenge. In the 1990s, its denouncement of the health consequences of liberal policies did not earn it many compliments… Finally, its fight against urban pollution has earned it the animosity of climate change skeptics, among whom Trump and Bolsonaro are at the forefront. The WHO affair illustrates once again that the general interest, in this case the health of all, is incompatible with capitalist logic.
We must remember this after the health crisis….
