WHO remains world's best hope for fighting pandemics: US media

NEW YORK - The World Health Organization (WHO) remains "the world's best hope for fighting pandemics," a New York Times opinion piece has said, calling for more investment than less.

The article, titled "Don't Leave the WHO. Strengthen It" and released on Saturday, said that as the world is battling the most serious pandemic in a century, "the United States is in the process of withdrawing from the only international organization equipped to lead that effort."

In May, US President Donald Trump said that his country is "terminating" its relationship with the WHO, days after the White House, in a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, threatened to make the temporary freeze of US funding "permanent" and reconsider its membership in the organization.

The US withdrawal from the organization "will leave the United States and the rest of the world in a much worse position to tackle health threats like this coronavirus," said the article, noting that some things cannot be done by the United States alone.

"It was only through the WHO, for example, that American scientists were able to visit China to see the country's coronavirus response firsthand," it said, adding that "the United States Agency for International Development has funneled much of its pandemic response funding through the WHO for exactly this reason."

"Further soiling public health efforts will only add confusion and complexity to a crisis response that's already desperate for better coordination," the article said.

The global tally of coronavirus cases topped 8 million on Monday, with over 400,000 deaths, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

The United States has been hardest hit with 2,110,791 cases and 116,090 deaths, according to the tally.