John Oliver Roasts Trump’s Plan to Withdraw From the WHO: One Of the ‘Dumbest Things We Can Possibly Do’
John Oliver exposed the dangers of President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) during Sunday’s Last Week Tonight — blasting it as one of the “dumbest things we can possibly do.”
Oliver introduced the organization as one of the president’s “favorite punching bags” before playing a montage of clips showing Trump disparaging the WHO.
“Over the last six months, Trump has consistently tried to deflect blame for his handling of the coronavirus onto the WHO, China, and the close relationship he claims the two have,” Oliver said. “And at the beginning of July, he turned that criticism into real action.”
The late-night host was referring to the president’s decision to terminate the United States’ relationship with the WHO in the midst of a pandemic.
Oliver explained that the United States is the only country that is able to withdraw from the WHO as long as one year notice is given.
“That is a pretty weird perk for America alone to have,” Oliver pointed out. “It’s like finding out we demanded to be the only country to wax the pubes of every squirrel. Why would we want the right to do that in the first place, and more to the point, why would we ever consider actually doing it?”
The host gave a rundown of what the WHO actually does, including annual flu vaccines, tracking and responding to outbreaks, and providing care when needed. The WHO also successfully eradicated the world of smallpox and has 194 member states, nearly every country in the world.
“When, let’s say hypothetically, a pandemic breaks out the organization can provide a critical role as a central clearinghouse of information conducting investigations and releasing information to the public and it does all of it on a budget of $2.4 billion a year,” Oliver added, which is the same amount of money it takes to run a single hospital in the United States.
Oliver also noted that the WHO certainly has some issues, including its slow response to the Ebola outbreak.
“And look, it is fine if the U.S. has problems with the WHO. It has problems,” he said. “But the solution clearly isn’t to walk away. It is to try and fix them. But the only way for the U.S. to have a say in how that happens is to have a seat at the table, and we’re about to just give that up.”
“If the coronavirus shown us anything is that diseases don’t recognize borders and we’re only as strong as our worst prepared country” he added. “Pulling out of the WHO at any time, but especially in the midst of pandemic that has killed over 200,000 Americans and a million people around the world, is one of the most ill-advised, dumbest things we can possibly do — and I mean that f*cking literally.”
Watch above, via YouTube.
