Following a sudden decision from Trump back in July, America is currently on track to leave the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 6, 2021.
In the video above from Last Week Tonight, John Oliver takes a look at how that all came about.
Oliver starts by explaining what the WHO is and what it does – including its past successes like eradicating smallpox – before moving onto how, exactly, it managed to incur Trump's anger (and why his decision to take America out says less about the WHO's failings and more about the president being "incapable of acknowledging nuance").
For example, one of Trump's arguments is that the U.S. pays too much towards the WHO, even though – as Oliver explains – "most of what the U.S. pays each year is voluntary contributions."
Ultimately, Oliver concludes that the decision to leave the WHO is another example of Trump deciding to blow something up because he either doesn't understand it, doesn't care, or both.
"We've seen this with the Paris Climate Agreement, and the Iran nuclear deal, and now he's doing it with the World Health Organization," says Oliver.
"And even though Trump likes to pretend that we can insulate ourselves from the rest of the world, if the coronavirus has shown us anything, it's that diseases don't recognise borders, and we're only as strong as our worst prepared country. And pulling out of the WHO at any time, but especially in the midst of a pandemic that's killed over 200,000 Americans and a million people around the world, is one of the most ill-advised, dumbest things we could possibly do."
Topics Health John Oliver Last Week Tonight
