In april-may 2020 the Administration of Donald Trump has investigated the WHO response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
"This review has confirmed many of the serious concerns", including "World Health Organization's alarming lack of independence from the People's Republic of China". Because of this, WHO, by ignoring and suppressing the outbreak, which it knew about back in December 2019, contributed to the spread of the virus around the world.
Although relatively recently, in 2003, during the SARS epidemic in China, WHO immediately declared an emergency and recommended against travel to southern China. She also openly criticized China for trying to silence the outbreak by arresting whistleblowers and censoring media.
On May 18, 2020, Donald Trump wrote an open letter to the WHO Director General with the results of the investigation and a personal appeal:
"It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world". The only way forward for the World Health Organization lies in reform of organization. But action is needed quickly. Therefore, "if the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization".