When six Formula 1 drivers decided to use their popularity to raise money to fight the pandemic, they probably didn’t expect it would be seen as anything other than a sincere attempt to help at a time of dire need.
Last week Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Alex Albon, Nicholas Latifi, George Russell, Antonio Giovinazzi and a group of other drivers set up Race for the World. Fans were invited to watch the three-round esports series, held using the official Formula 1 game, and urged to contribute towards a $100,000 target.At the time of writing, the drivers have passed the halfway mark towards their goal, raising over $52,000 for the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
They deserve only praise for an initiative which uses their popularity and combined social media clout for what is clearly a worthy cause. But not everyone agrees it is.
The 45th president of the United States of America, continuing a personal trend, made several false claims about the WHO’s handling of the crisis and announced the country, which is the biggest single contributor to the health body, will cut its $400 million per year contribution.
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To put this into perspective, the WHO has said it needs a further $1 billion in funds, or 17.5% of its 2018-19 budget, to help fight the pandemic.
A point-by-point rejection of the president’s largely baseless charges against an organisation F1 drivers are raising money for is a matter for publications which are not primarily concerned with motor racing.
We are a global community, Formula 1 is a global activity, and we are facing a threat which does not discriminate based on borders. No institution is beyond criticism, but it should be obvious how urgently the work of the WHO is needed at a time like this.
The contribution the F1 drivers are making to it may be comparatively modest in terms of the sums needed, but it is a step in the right direction at a time when others in positions of greater power are pushing the wrong way. It shouldn’t need to be pointed out that an unprecedented global emergency of this scale demands co-operation and solidarity, not disinformation and blame-apportioning.
The president has got it wrong. The Formula 1 drivers are right. Give them your support.
The final round of Race for the World takes place on Friday evening and you can contribute to their fundraising effort here:
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Comment
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kartguy07 (@kartguy07)
16th April 2020, 12:27
Happy to support a global response to the pandemic, that is what is needed, but blaming the US President is no more productive than blaming the WHO – and for what it is worth, there is plenty of merit to the criticisms of the WHO, though I would hardly expect the BBC to agree with anything Trump says.
Ultimately China must be held to account, but for now the world needs their cooperation.
William Jones
16th April 2020, 13:57
Held to account for what exactly? Their data is in line with every Western countries, so they haven’t covered anything up since December, no more than us at least, and they gave the world a stark warning in January, along with the full genome of both strains of the virus, something the Western world choose to ignore until March. South Korea didn’t ignore the warning, and look how much better they are doing.
For sure, it’s not productive to criticise the president for his dangerous actions and spending American lives to shore up his voter base, but, it’s perfectly possible to be both productive AND criticise those who spread lies for personal gain, all at the same time.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
16th April 2020, 14:44
Wrong! They lied and spread China’s BS early on, downplaying the severity even after they’d been let in to Wuhan. They are nothing more than a part of the propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party.
bosyber (@bosyber)
16th April 2020, 15:17
Well, there are some good grounds to criticise the WHO, but at the same time, many of those critisicms are born out of them not actually having any power, by design – they depend on the member countries to fund them, allow them to put staff on something, and to give them the data and cooperation they need to do their job. They coordinate and inform, mostly.
Like the WHO has been beholden to other big countries before, it is at least partly beholden to China. And, while the USA diminishes its world standing and role, China is ramping up in money, people and influence, including at the WHO. Yes, the WHO was perhaps too cautious to wonder about the januari ‘no transferral between humans’ that came out of China, but they cannot afford not to cooperate with a country (even the USA) in fighting a pandemic.
Anyway, much of this taken from solid article in NRC: Is the WHO really shielding China (Dutch, paywall at 3 or 5 articles/month), it’s not really on topic here.
Anyway, let’s continue to feel free to spend our own money on these young guys’ fundraising for a cause they believe in, and not be stopped from that by politicians who base themselves on something else than solid reasoning and evidence.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
16th April 2020, 23:29
Thank you for your well considered reply. Comments sections on nearly every website have been kind of out of balance recently, and is nice to hear well articulated reasonable positions.
petebaldwin (@)
16th April 2020, 15:26
@jblank – They didn’t downplay it as much as you though. You called cancelling the Chinese GP an “over-reaction” and said the flu is more dangerous than Covid…..
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
16th April 2020, 15:28
That’s because in Shanghai at the time, there was no threat and also the Flu WAS killing more people than the Coronavirus. The WHO had been INTO Wuhan, they knew the truth and instead acted as a propaganda arm for the ChiComms.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
16th April 2020, 15:41
@petebaldwin Another thing, smart ass, I’m just a regular guy that had information publicly available, THEY HAD information I wasn’t privy to, and withheld it, along with their Chinese masters. I suggest you do some research on them rather than trying to be a member of their PR team.
LosD (@losd)
16th April 2020, 17:26
@jblank And yet, you were one of few not to see how serious it was. It was very clear, very early, that if nothing was done, it would outgrow the flu by far far… But nooo nooo… “hurr, durr, just a flu”
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
16th April 2020, 17:29
@losd Another lying jackass makes an appearance. Let us recall it was the day before practice that Melbourne was called off, the day before, and looking back, there were people all over the world still playing in and attending sporting events. I never said it was “just a flu”, that is a bold faced lie, I said the flu was killing more people at the time and that was 110% true.
Only someone with a weak argument resorts to distortions and lies.
GFY!
LosD (@losd)
16th April 2020, 17:39
@jblank and yet you somehow came to the conclusion that this was all a stupid overreaction… When the data was pretty damn clear that it would grow to be much, much worse.
But you keeping yourself that there was no indication and no warning, and it was all WHO that mislead you and the cheeto-in-chief.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
16th April 2020, 23:31
Just don’t feed em.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
17th April 2020, 13:13
@losd
Let’s go over this another time as you seem to have trouble with the timeline. At the time of the race decision, there were isolated cases in other nations and yes, while it was indeed spreading, the magnitude and severity had been played down by a) the media (I can send you links from left-of-center sites saying “worry about the flu not Coronavirus”) b) the Chinese government and c) the WHO.
I NEVER said there was no indication or warning, that is ANOTHER lie. What I can do is show you lots of evidence from media all over the world where Dr. Tedros and WHO praised China, even saying they have it under control. The Washington Post, hardly a defender of the “Cheeto” as you call him, had a great piece about it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinese-officials-note-serious-problems-in-coronavirus-response-the-world-health-organization-keeps-praising-them/2020/02/08/b663dd7c-4834-11ea-91ab-ce439aa5c7c1_story.html
So, keep spinning, keep distorting what I am saying, all so you can stick up for the Chinese, the WHO, and your leftism, while bashing everyone that was believing what the people you’re defending, were saying. Only in the addled mind of a leftist does that make sense.
William Jones
16th April 2020, 18:24
I’m asking what China need to be held to account over? Sure, they covered up the disease in November and December, but by January they had released the full genome of the virus, something that’s given us a huge head start on the virus and warned the world in January. Now if the world had reacted in January, then definitely, China would have needed to be held to account for the cover up early on. It would have actively delayed us in taking action. But we waited for two months to take action, in March. We cannot blame China for that delay. Had we acted in January, we would be out of this by now, with exponentially less deaths. We didn’t and that’s on us, not the WHO, not the Chinese government. There are plenty of criticisms to be levelled at each, but compared to that 2 month gap in reacting, it’s like criticising the electric board for the colour of the headers on their letters while you let your reactors go critical.
And yes, you did downplay the virus in that time, which was when Trump was downplaying the virus and now you’re lashing out at… shock surprise, exactly who Trump is blaming… try thinking for yourself. You won’t look so silly next time.
xcm
17th April 2020, 9:51
btw, heres your $.50 “William Jones”
Michael D
16th April 2020, 14:46
Please don’t believe anything you say about Chinese data. We work with Chinese vendors and customers and believe me, their data is off by a factor of 25x+.
In mid January a statistician figured out that they were using a quadratic equation to report their data. Sure enough he predicted the next 14 days worth of data to working a few %. The CCP is to blame for this and others are to blame for not seeing the obvious before it’s too late.
Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
16th April 2020, 20:17
Trump was literally calling this a hoax, he has an incredible amount of blame on his shoulders. Because of him people didn’t take it seriously and now the US is one of the worst countries handling this virus
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
16th April 2020, 23:33
+1
Dane
17th April 2020, 21:22
Not exactly. From Snopes:
“What’s True
During a Feb. 28, 2020, campaign rally in South Carolina, President Donald Trump likened the Democrats’ criticism of his administration’s response to the new coronavirus outbreak to their efforts to impeach him, saying “this is their new hoax.” During the speech he also seemed to downplay the severity of the outbreak, comparing it to the common flu.
What’s False
Despite creating some confusion with his remarks, Trump did not call the coronavirus itself a hoax.“
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-coronavirus-rally-remark/
Optmist (@optmist)
17th April 2020, 23:05
+1
Aiii (@)
16th April 2020, 12:59
Blaming the US President for actively spreading fake news, and trying to shift his blame first to China, then the EU, then the WHO, and consistently the Democrats… All the while he ignores the experts, lying about their advice, sometimes as they’re standing next to him at that. Nah, that’s not the same thing as this article making a correct statement. Trump is full of s—, the WHO needs support. Cutting their funding now for political gain harms not just every US citizen, it harms literally every human being on the planet.
There is no merit to literally anything Trump has said and done during this crisis, he’s had the worst response of any world leader by a country mile and it’s translating into unemployment, deaths, and a terrible worldwide reputation (I mean, trying to buy a company in Germany to get exclusive rights to a vaccine that’s supposed to benefit the entire world right now alone is enough to shame this man), and that should consistently be called out until the end of his days in office.
At least he got his name on the stimulus checks, good guy Trump.
Aiii (@)
16th April 2020, 13:00
This was of course in reply to @kartguy07
Applebook
16th April 2020, 18:36
Speaking of fake news, do some research about WHO and put down your politically biased lenses.
It it “fake news” that Taiwan shouldn’t be recognized as an independent country, or do you side with WHO just because you hate Trump?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
17th April 2020, 9:10
@Applebook Did you know that there are rules about how countries are recognised? It’s not as simple as wishing a country into existence, or even having particular features associated with a nation (It’s why there are more nations in the Olympics than are recognised as existing by the UN – before counting the occasional recognised non-member – because the IOC and UN, to take two examples of international organisations, have slightly different rules about what constitutes a country). It would be a good idea if you checked those rules before claiming that recognising the fact of Taiwan’s non-recognition constitutes political bias. Whether it should be is a whole different argument, and not one I feel belongs to this site.
Given what I have seen of Taiwan’s counter, I don’t see how the WHO could have interpreted it the way many people would have liked. At no point were key phrases like “human-to-human transmission” or “novel illness” used, largely because when the warning email was sent, Taiwan was still testing to discover whether either of those things were true. In politics, it’s generally safe to assume people will infer meaning from statements written a particular way. However, in medicine, specific phrases mean specific things, and missing those phrases means the associated meaning will be lost – reading things into medical statements that are not directly stated is discouraged. That’s because in medicine, there often isn’t time to interpolate meaning, let alone guess which meaning a colleague might be hinting at – whereas in politics, three minutes either way rarely makes much difference unless there’s a conversation involved. That is two very different ways of writing (or indeed reading) a statement, and they’re not compatible with each other. (I’m going into this detail primarily because the tension in communication methods I describe is also hovering in the background whenever F1 medical and psuedopolitical considerations clash. There, awareness of the problem exists, both sides realise the extent to which they depend on each other, and to some extent the psuedopoliticians shifted towards a more direct form of communication on such matters to ease communications between these elements).
Taiwan meant well, but the different translation conventions prevented the email being as effective as it needed to be in communicating what is happening. The result of this was that WHO had to go back to China for information, and as we know the people who had the full information there were being told to shut up…
Poor communication kills. Perhaps we should just feel fortunate that we have a group of racers who can communicate better than that with each other?
Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
16th April 2020, 20:19
It amazes me how his fans defend him even though he is clearly wrong, its almost like they do this because they don’t want to admit they were wrong when they picked him as their savior
Proteus (@proteus)
17th April 2020, 12:03
You are completely clueless, but what disturbs me is that you are trying to persuade others that you are the only one who knows everything. We all know who spred the disease, we all know who muted Taiwan when they wanted that the world to know about the new virus. But ofcourse you ‘neoliberal’ people blame Trump for it…facepalm… Liveleak may open your eyes a little bit, about who intentionally helped the virus to spread faster, many incidents were filmed and it was not Trump who caughed on public knobs, buttons and food.
Optmist (@optmist)
17th April 2020, 23:07
+1
Jack (@jt1234)
16th April 2020, 13:54
You sir, violated your own statement, “A point-by-point rejection of the president’s largely baseless charges against an organisation F1 drivers are raising money for is a matter for publications which are not primarily concerned with motor racing.”.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th April 2020, 15:35
@jt1234 A point-by-point rejection would have made a far longer article than the summary Keith gave. Since readers are more likely to be sympathetic to a racing scheme in which many have already made an emotional (and in some cases financial) investment than someone who only provided an opinion on the WHO partway through the series – and certainly didn’t say anything about the drivers’ fundraising initative directly – the provided summary was plenty sufficient.
ColdFly (@)
16th April 2020, 14:35
Maybe they can invite Tom Moore to join the last #RaceForTheWorld.
mfreire
16th April 2020, 15:01
Nothing this president does is right. Nothing. As an American I am so terribly embarassed of the spectacle this psychopathic lunatic presents every day of the year.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
16th April 2020, 15:42
That’s demonstrably false. He’s a man child but on policy, he’s been quite good, especially for the economy.
Applebook
16th April 2020, 18:37
The American economy was at an all time high before the virus, but Trump did “nothing” right.
It’s amazing how blind some people really are.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
16th April 2020, 23:37
Let’s see how the economy fares after his presidency to see the real fruits of his labors. He is running the US into the ground, and he and his buddies are positioned to pick up the pieces at a seriously reduced rate.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
17th April 2020, 13:14
Another leftist lie from Ferrox.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
17th April 2020, 15:58
Classic disaster capitalism, blanky.
anon
17th April 2020, 13:13
@jblank whilst there are aspects of Trump’s economic policies that might have had positive effects in some areas, there are other sectors of the US economy where his policies seem to have had negative impacts.
In the latter part of 2019, for example, the corporate bonds market data suggested that stock market prices, which Trump seems to be particularly keen to emphasise, were overvalued and were likely to start falling, or at least stagnate, in 2020 as rising corporate debt levels started to impact growth and share payments.
There have also been signs that Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs to try and bolster the US manufacturing sector may have actually backfired and seems to be damaging that sector instead.
The quarters following Trump’s imposition of heavier tariffs on foreign suppliers of certain products, such as steel, have seen productivity growth in the US manufacturing sector decline – I believe that the final quarter of 2019 saw productivity growth in the manufacturing sector fall to nearly zero – and the PMI ratings for that sector have been weaker than predicted as well, with Q3 and Q4 indicating the manufacturing sector was contracting instead of growing.
Similarly, whilst jobs had initially grown in the US manufacturing sector in his first years in office, his policies in 2019 saw that growth disappear – the US manufacturing sector seems to have actually been shedding jobs in the latter part of 2019. In that sector, therefore, you’re more likely to see a more negative opinion of Trump’s economic policies given that the impacts have been rather more mixed.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
17th April 2020, 16:05
@jblank Trump being good for wealthy people is not the same as Trump being good for the economy.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
17th April 2020, 16:10
@ferrox-glideh Oh that leftist horse manure has been disproven countless times. Highest employment numbers, salaries way up, I am keeping more of what I owe and I am hardly wealthy, but go on spouting all the usual leftist pap, it’s all you have.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
17th April 2020, 16:39
He inherited this economy, and he will run it into the ground. Time will tell which one of us is correct.
Robbie (@robbie)
18th April 2020, 15:20
Bottom line…Trump is an impeached, traitorous, disgusting, lying monster with zero credibility, and zero morals, in the pockets of the Russian mafia, and is only concerned about his ratings and couldn’t care less about serving the American people.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
20th July 2020, 18:31
@jblank Three months later, and you have your answer about what a mess Trump is.
Jack (@jackisthestig)
16th April 2020, 15:13
The WHO isn’t fit for purpose, far more interested in wading into politics on issues such as sugar-tax and banning vaping rather than sticking to their brief of minimising the spread of diseases across the world and especially Africa which they consistently fail to do.
By all means raise money but give it to a charity which will do good with it, don’t waste it on this shambles!
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
16th April 2020, 15:41
Amen! 100% true.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
16th April 2020, 23:42
Yeah, it makes so much sense to pay for the hospitalization and death of a sugar addicted and cancer riddled population, without warning the innocent participants of this system. Might as well break up the UN while we are at it, bloody peacenik tree huggers blah blah blah.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
17th April 2020, 9:43
@jackisthestig WHO has a very broad brief, as it happens. It includes all the things you mention – and quite a few more (I know this because I once had interactions with the organisation… …because when international sports organisations have an issue with deciding disability classification that cannot be decided through consulting their own rules or resources, they go to the WHO to help them figure out the answer).
All those things would still need doing if the WHO didn’t exist. It is possible you would prefer the responsibilities to be split… …but meanwhile, people are dying and the WHO is trying to help them not die. The primary reason it wants extra money right now is so it can continue to do things like send out supplies to countries in need, co-ordinating information as the virus changes (two variants already exist) and helping with track-and-trace systems (which have proven very effective in places where they were consistently applied). So this is a charity that will do some good with the money.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th April 2020, 15:43
Good news – the Race For The World fundraiser has passed the $55,000 mark. Perhaps, if there is additional sympathy to the project from the sudden funding loss from elsewhere, they might hit the $100,000 the drivers involved had hoped to achieve? I want this project to succeed and help people, no matter how many people off-site don’t care!
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th April 2020, 16:01
…and now I am wishing for an edit button because I misread it and it is still a bit above $53000. Sorry for the over-enthusiasm.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
16th April 2020, 16:04
Wrong . Very wrong. Even the BBC, not considered right wing, had published an article clearly stating there’s truth in President Trump’s claims. The WHO’s pandering to mainland China’s commies vs their treatment towards the democratic Republic of China is truly appalling among other things.
But I’m not going to discuss that here of all places. There’s a much worse issue at hand with regards to this site: Instead of focusing on racing so that racing fans can enjoy a break from politics irrespective from where they come from on the political spectrum, this site has increasingly over the past couple of years has become just another left-wing propaganda platform. PravdaFans! As a result I had to cancel my ads-free subscription. It’s nothing of course in monetary terms, also since its your site you can do whatever you like, even put Che Guevara as a welcoming picture, but I cannot associate with articles such as the above. Even if I’d happen to agree with every word it said, I maintain that this is wrong and would’ve acted the same.
Been a member of this site from close to the beginning and will always remember the F1Fanatic period with very fond memories.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
16th April 2020, 17:31
Here, here, VERY well said! Bravissimo! Thank you for that comment.
Guybrush Threepwood (@guybrushthreepwood)
16th April 2020, 18:05
You don’t need to have any particular political persuasion to recognise the flawed decisions and character that occupies the presidents office.
Having said that I did find it a little odd that this article lent a lot of its copy to a political figure who is largely unrelated to motor racing.
But in a way, the reason the world loves watching Trump is the same reason many watch motorsport – while no one likes the toll it takes on people’s lives, everyone loves watching a car crash unfold.
Frasier (@frasier)
16th April 2020, 20:42
Keith does appear to be triggered by Trump. He would be better off Googling Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the WHO for the real reasons behind their lamentable performance in this crisis. Corruption.
Yesterday China refused to shut down wet markets. In doing so have they just admitted in public that they know it didn’t come from that source? Like it really escaped from a lab much earlier than 8th Dec 2019? A lab such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology just down the road from the outbreak?
It should be clear to all by now that relying on the BBC for a wide range of news is distinctly suspect.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
17th April 2020, 9:30
@frasier The first known case was November 17th, and shutting down wet markets 5 months afterwards, when other activities of similar transmission risk are permitted in China, would not be a logical response.
Frasier (@frasier)
17th April 2020, 12:49
Honestly, just because other bad things are happening it’s not a reason to avoid doing something that will improve hygiene going forward, which is all we can do now.
Going back to the early research into the source of the virus we have this
https://www.who.int/csr/don/12-january-2020-novel-coronavirus-china/en/
If you believe the WHO leadership of course, personally I don’t, it seems inept and keen to spare China’s embarassment over this affair. Going back on this initial finding is very suggestive that they know the source was not the wet market, my original point.
mrfill (@mrfill)
17th April 2020, 13:24
The wet markets have a lot more regulation. For instance, wild animals are not permitted there any more.
Nasty lab escapes happen elsewhere too .. https://www.nature.com/news/us-military-accidentally-ships-live-anthrax-to-labs-1.17653
Donald Duck
17th April 2020, 13:35
It disturbs me that there people out there aren’t triggered by Trump!
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
16th April 2020, 23:17
On 30th December, 2019, the “Medical Administration and Medical Administration of Wuhan Municipal Health Committee” in China issued a ” red-headed document” (“Red Alert”?), an “urgent notice on the treatment of pneumonia of unknown cause”. This notice was “widely distributed on the Internet”. A reporter became aware of the “urgent notice”, verified the report was true. The following day, 31st December, 2019, a report regarding this appeared on the Sina Finance website. Anyone can view the report. About the same day (I think the International Date Line comes into play here) the International Society for Infectious Diseases had their ProMed-mail system email out an alert regarding this (Archive Number: 20191230.6864153). Also, that day the World Health Organisation was notified and Hong Kong stepped up their screening of people arriving at the border and put their hospitals on alert.
As far as I can tell it was around 24 hours from when Wuhan Municipal Health Committee put out the Red Alert until the International Society for Infectious Diseases released details of this alert on their widely and freely available email.
Optmist (@optmist)
17th April 2020, 23:09
+1
John H
16th April 2020, 17:02
I think this article represents much of what is wrong with journalism in general. When in doubt, or when it is important, keep politics out. This article is why I’m dropping this website from my news feed. Focus more on racing in the future and less on politics please.
melkurion (@melkurion)
17th April 2020, 6:59
All I can say is: good riddance.
Jack (@jt1234)
16th April 2020, 17:29
I applaud the driver’s concern and effort at fund raising. However, the china-centric WHO would should be the last place to receive a nickel of my money.
Dane
16th April 2020, 18:18
Whatever your opinions are of Trump, this should be about whether the WHO is worthy of your charitable money and there is long list of how they mismanaged this pandemic.
– The Chinese government tried to coverup the spread of the virus and silenced doctors and whistleblowers who spoke out. The WHO deferred to the Communist Party, not the outspoken doctors and even praised them China’s handing of the outbreak.
– The failed to declare a pandemic until after the virus had ravaged across Europe and Italy was in a full national lockdown.
– Initially the WHO advised against wearing face masks, a practice widely acknowledged to prevent the spread of respiratory illness.
-The WHO praised China for releasing the Coronavirus genome failing to mention it took them 17 days to do so.
-Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control surmise that people were passing the disease to each other, they notified the WHO of their suspicions through the UN agency’s International Health Regulations reporting window, a platform for sharing information and updates. Two weeks later the WHO tweeted COVID19 did not spread via human to human transmission.
-The WHO maintained asymptomatic people weren’t spreading the virus despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
– The WHO continued to advise against travel bans when early evidence from other Asian countries indicated it slowed the virus’ spread and many health experts today agree travel restrictions were necessary.
Personally, I’d like there to be some accountability at the WHO or at least answer some tough questions about their decision making before I’d give them any money. I’m sure there’s other organizations F1 could donate to that are deserving of our charity.
William Jones
16th April 2020, 18:33
I agree with most of what you say, but:
1) They couldn’t declare a pandemic while the USA was pretending that they had only 15 cases in their country and they had the situation under control. To do so, given the very specific definition of the word ‘pandemic’ would have been to call Trump a liar. He was lying, but they couldn’t do that. They still declared it early in the end, and specifically cited political reasons for doing so
2) You say there are other organisations. Nope. They are all we have, no-one else is even trying to co-ordinate international co-operation if fighting pandemics and international epidemics. They may be flawed, but without them, we would be significantly worse off.
Dane
16th April 2020, 22:33
I wouldn’t say the USA was “pretending” there was only 15 cases early on. The big problem America had was not enough testing supplies and therefore no one knew how many cases existed. Only 15 cases had been confirmed.
There was widespread infection across Asia and Europe before the US got it though.
As for the charity money, it could be anything from food banks to Doctors Without Borders. There’s a lot different ways to help both with the virus and the economic strain the world is under.
Carlos Medrano (@carlosmedrano)
16th April 2020, 20:16
Trump and his cult are dumb enough to cut funding to the world health organization during a freaken pandemic. They are obviously villains
Proteus (@proteus)
17th April 2020, 12:07
When i read comments like this, i wonder how can we be the most intelligent beings on the planet….? Get yourself away from the keyboard and you will do us all a giant favour.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
17th April 2020, 13:19
@proteus Agreed. People like Carlos Medrano are truly the most ignorant among us. Apparently he has missed all of the controversy and lying perpetrated by the WHO.
Robbie (@robbie)
18th April 2020, 15:32
@jblank For any alleged controversy or lie perpetuated by the WHO, there are hundreds and hundreds perpetuated by the monster that occupies the Oval Office. But hey, you like the guy and have an issue with WHO so I’m sure you don’t mind at all the high death rate in the US from Trump ignoring the WHO’s advice early on. Guess you think that was the best thing to do for he and his expertise can be trusted over a global body of health experts. You know…the impeached one.
Balue (@balue)
16th April 2020, 20:42
Whitewashing WHO just because Trump has attacked it is just childish when their lack of leadership and preparation has been obvious for all to see. Even today they are giving obvious false advice that face masks do not help, which is directly affecting health and lives, yet for some people they can do no wrong now because of Trump, so the peddling of this narrative is actually dangerous.
Dane
16th April 2020, 22:26
This article is making it out to be Trump vs an F1 charity event which is the wrong way to frame this. The question is has the WHO made serious errors that has exacerbated the pandemic? If so, is that the organization that deserves your money?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
17th April 2020, 9:19
@Dane Given that money is spent on things that are going to happen, not things that have happened (because the latter would break the nature of causality), the correct question is: will the WHO make good use of the incoming donation?
Dane
17th April 2020, 21:27
Good point. So far it doesn’t seem like they have owned up to any of their mistakes which makes me wonder if they’re only going to repeat them.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
16th April 2020, 23:23
KC, good on you for changing the headline, it was initially a little off key.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
17th April 2020, 2:14
So the hypothesis is that the WHO and China fully disclosed the nature of the pandemic well in advance, in the December-January time frame.
If the hypothesis is true, why did F1 try to race in Australia in mid-March? Wouldn’t they have cancelled in January?
Orangeman bad. WHO is good. Maybe, just maybe, Orangeman bad, WHO bad.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
17th April 2020, 9:16
@jimfromus You do know that it was Liberty’s decision to go to Australia, based on travel advice that was based on countries choosing to ignore WHO advice? And that criticising an organisation because of an error made by other parties is poor logic at best?
Phil Jones
17th April 2020, 3:06
I didn’t come here for geopolitics. Goodbye race fans. Thanks for your reporting last couple of years.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
17th April 2020, 13:20
I am about to pull my monthly donation from them.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
17th April 2020, 16:07
We are so sad to see you go :(
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
21st April 2020, 16:08
@jblank On second thought, after looking at your previous posts, you probably won’t be missed here. Surely Rupert Murdoch has some echo chamber that you could hear yourself better in.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
21st April 2020, 17:00
@ferrox-glideh Why don’t you go “F” yourself, you piece of leftist pap? Shockingly, some of us prefer our race coverage politics free rather than infested with leftism and leftists, like yourself. Go play in traffic, you won’t be missed.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
21st April 2020, 23:33
@jblank I feel bad for you. Hatred will eat up up like cancer if you keep it up. And if you look up at your comments here, you will see that you started the the political stuff yourself, Blankie. Look in the mirror mate.
Duncan Snowden
18th April 2020, 14:27
The President has withdrawn US funding for the WHO pending an investigation into its activities. An investigation which is sorely needed.
Because criticism and scepticism of the WHO did not start this month, or even this year. It made a complete mess of the 2013 Ebola outbreak, during which its previous Director General presided over a (criminally under-reported) expenses scandal. It spends more on travel expenses than it does fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Not my words; the AP’s. Here’s another article on the scandal from that famous Trump-supporting journal, the Guardian.
It’s also notoriously secretive. The public, independent observers, and all of the credentialed journalists covering the last two meetings of its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control were ejected, some forcibly, before the meetings even began. This is the organization that sets legislative guidelines for almost 200 countries across the world. Even if you agree with its findings, shouldn’t we be allowed to know how it came to them?
The current DG, while he was Health Minister for Ethiopia’s brutal People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, covered up three cholera outbreaks, later serving as the régime’s Foreign Minister. China lobbied heavily for his appointment, promising poorer countries billions in aid if they voted for him, helping him beat an eminently-qualified and highly-respected British doctor, David Nabbaro.
The WHO is a deeply corrupt organization whose practical functions have largely been replaced already by others, who are doing a better job – the Institute For Health Metrics And Evaluation, for example – and is long overdue the scrutiny the US wants to apply.
Goodbye, RaceFans. It’s a pity. I liked F1 Fanatic.
Sm
19th April 2020, 20:25
Clickbait title but this doctor seems to talk sense https://youtu.be/WGbYHJcMbz8
Sm
19th April 2020, 20:26
Also YouTube has started bleeping several non cursing words if his. What are they trying to hide?