Posted on 11/07/2006 1:55:43 PM PST by Ben Mugged
The Bush administration's drug and sexual health policy is a key issue as the World Health Organization chooses its next leader, a post that wields great power in allocating billions of dollars in funds to alleviate misery around the world. ~snip~
Critics say the United States, WHO's largest donor, plays too large a role behind the scenes. They argue that the Bush administration is promoting the interests of its pharmaceutical industry at the expense of poor AIDS patients who could be saved by cheap generic medicines and has adopted an ideological line on issues like abortion.
President Bush has made more money available for AIDS research than any previous American leader, but that largesse has not extended to programs in reproductive and sexual health. His administration has also challenged ideologically charged WHO programs such as needle exchanges and condom distribution.
U.S. officials deny they are seeking to force the administration's health policies upon the world.
"We are not giving WHO money because we want to have influence," said Bill Hall, a spokesman for the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. "We're doing this because we want to improve the human condition around the world."
Leading public health experts and senior WHO officials told The Associated Press that Washington consistently interfered with policy under the U.N. agency's last director-general, Dr. Lee Jong-Wook, who died in May.
"The U.S. government has a direct role in every significant decision made in Geneva, and even close to a veto role," said Dr. Richard Horton, editor of the influential medical journal, The Lancet.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The UN a$$hats still don't like the fact that he who pays the piper calls the tune.
WHO is it?
They want the US to invest billions in developing the drugs, donate billions to developing countries, then allow the developing countries to reproduce the drugs in factories we build and distribute them at a fraction of what economic factors say should be a reasonable cost. All the while blaming the US for their citizens dying.
Not only do we have to fund national health care but international health care as well......
The US spends more on healthcare than any other country, and also gives more healthcare money to non-US agencies than any other country. Who is WHO to criticize? Let them criticize the failed states in Africa that siphon the money off to their personal accounts.
Do they seriously think that we are obligated to hand them large amounts of money so that they can use it in a fashion that we don't approve of? Amazing.
Pull all WHO funding.
While we are at it, pull all UN funding also.
I though WHO was a Rock n Roll band!
I support WHO. I'll be playing their song "Teenage Wasteland" at my wedding.
Just cause you pay the bills don't mean you get to have your say?
Then stop paying.
And for what? The worlds abortions?
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