This is a new jab that further seals the divorce between the United States and the WHO. American Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Tuesday that the World Health Organization, from which Donald Trump withdrew his country, was a little late in identifying the Ebola epidemic currently affecting the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
When asked by journalists how the United States planned to react, the US Secretary of State said: “The main actor will obviously be the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the main US health agency), as well as the World Health Organization, which unfortunately was a little late in identifying this epidemic.”
The United States plans to open 50 clinics in DRC
Marco Rubio also indicated that the United States, which has allocated $13 million in aid for “immediate response operations,” hope to open approximately 50 clinics to treat Ebola in the DRC, a country where an American citizen has tested positive for this virus. “It’s a bit difficult to access because it’s a rural area […] and a hard-to-reach place in a country ravaged by war, unfortunately,” he said. “We are going to invest heavily in this,” promised the Secretary of State.
The United States, under the presidency of Donald Trump, has officially withdrawn from the WHO and has reduced its funding for their Agency for International Development (USAID), heavily involved in responding to previous Ebola outbreaks.
Fact Check: Marco Rubio is an American Senator, not the Secretary of State. The current Secretary of State is Antony Blinken. The United States officially withdrew from the WHO in July 2021.
