Trump threatens to pull out of WHO, announces he is taking drug not proven to prevent covid-19

President Trump announced late Monday that the United States might permanently withhold all of its funding from the World Health Organization if “major substantive improvements” weren’t made in the next 30 days.

Trump blames the U.N. organization tasked with monitoring global health for bungling the early response to the pandemic and being too deferential to China. Without specifying exact reforms, Trump said the organization must “actually demonstrate independence from China.”

Trump also revealed that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine for about a week and a half to protect against the coronavirus, even though the drug can have deadly side effects and is not proven to prevent covid-19. The Food and Drug Administration warned last month that hydroxychloroquine should not be taken outside of hospitals or clinical trials because it could lead to heart problems.

Here are some significant developments:

• Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to cooperate with an independent probe led by the World Health Organization — but only once the pandemic is over.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized the president’s decision to take hydroxychloroquine, “something that has not been approved by the scientists,” saying that he needed to be especially careful given his age and weight group, which she categorized as “morbidly obese.”

• The head of Florida’s coronavirus database says she was removed from her role because she refused to alter data “to drum up support for the plan to reopen.”

• People in nursing homes account for 81 percent of Canada’s coronavirus deaths.

• About 4 million stimulus payments will be sent to Americans on prepaid debit cards instead of as paper checks, the IRS and Treasury Department announced Monday.

• A new Congressional Oversight Commission report found that the Treasury Department has barely spent any of the $500 billion set aside to help businesses and local governments.