Congress must quickly reverse President Donald Trump’s defunding of the World Health Organization.

This should be a bipartisan priority, to provide U.S. leadership in combating the worldwide pandemic and support WHO’s broader, ongoing global-health mission.

The WHO made errors in its initial response to the coronavirus but so did Trump, who is scapegoating and undermining a critical health organization when it’s desperately needed to save lives.

As Bill Gates said on Twitter, the world needs WHO now more than ever.

“Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds,” Gates said. “Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them.”

Bill and Melinda Gates made Seattle a hub of global-health funding and innovation, spending more than $50 billion to eradicate terrible diseases, prevent early deaths of mothers and children, and improve lives around the world. Yet their efforts still depend on far larger, sustained support of global health by leading nations.

Read the entire story at The Seattle Times. Judd Walson, Vice Chair of the Department of Global Health, is quoted.