Ruptly
"US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was attacked over cuts to US aid and withdrawal from the WHO, amid the Ebola crisis, as he addressed lawmakers at the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. "Last year the Trump administration cut off all funding to the World Health Organisation," said Senator Jonathan Jackson. "However... the US still needs the global outbreak and disease surveillance functions that the World Health Organisation offers." He went on to cite a media report that the US government was going to "spend more than $2 billion a year to recreate a system that you dismantled". "This is more than three times what we had contributed to the World Health Organisation. That's waste, fraud, and abuse. How is reinventing the wheel at a significantly higher cost efficient for the American people?" he asked, before accusing the administration of a "devastating abandonment of those who have long looked to the US not as a saviour, but as a partner in the difficult work of survival and dignity." Bizarrely, Rubio did not have enough time to answer in the session - but when given some by the chair, replied: "Okay, because I do want to answer a lot of the points you raised. First of all, it's just absolutely false that we've abandoned the continent of Africa. As I've highlighted multiple times here." Ebola is surging in the DRC, with the US under fire over a plan for a treatment centre for US citizens in Kenya - amid claims that the Americans were using that African country to avoid the risk of treating people at home. The Kenyan government said it supported the US plan, despite ongoing protests."
Go to News Site