by Paul Anthony Taylor
January
17, 2019
from
DrRathFoundation Website
Margaret Chan (right) Director-General World Health Organization
(WHO)
with
Bill Gates (left) Co-Chair the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
during
the press conference.
UN
Photo / Jean-Marc Ferrz
Providing proof that the independence of the World Health
Organization (WHO)
has been severely compromised, a document (Voluntary
contributions by fund andby contributor, 2017) from the
2018 annual meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the
WHO's decision-making body, gives revealing details of where the
organization's funding comes from.
During 2017, the total
amount of money provided to the WHO by countries was exceeded by
that coming from non-state actors, including the pharmaceutical
industry.
The
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
contributed almost $327 million to the WHO's General and Fiduciary
Funds, making it the second-largest donor overall.
The only donations to
these funds higher than those of the Gates Foundation came
from the government of the United States.
Money donated by countries to the WHO's General and Fiduciary
Funds totaled $1.06 billion in 2017. This was less than the
contributions from non-state actors, which amounted to $1.08
billion.
Along with the Gates
Foundation, other prominent sources of funding included,
-
the Brussels EU
Commission, which gave over $84 million
-
the 'Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria', an organization
promoting the use of antiretroviral drugs and other
pharmaceutical approaches, which contributed over $16
million
-
UNITAID, another
organization promoting the use of pharmaceuticals, which
gave almost $30 million
Drug and
chemical industry donations to the WHO
The
multinational drug and chemical industries
and their investors figure prominently in the lists of WHO donors.
Money contributed to the
WHO's General Fund by these sources during 2017 included the
following:
-
Bayer AG
$1,158,060
-
Bristol-Myers
Squibb $215,730
-
Denka Seiken
$417,324
-
Eisai $280,000
-
Gilead Sciences
$3,124,450
-
GlaxoSmithKline
$7,365,666
-
Green Cross
Corporation $294,582
-
Hoffman-La Roche
$6,628,090
-
Kaketsuken
$417,324
-
Merck $510,000
-
Merck Sharp and
Dohme Chibret $1,652,226
-
Novartis $500,000
-
Rockefeller
Foundation $748,945
-
Sanofi Pasteur
$9,411,491
-
Sanofi-Aventis
$2,634,963
Other prominent WHO
donors during 2017 included,
Gates treated
like a head of state by the WHO
With the contributions provided
to the WHO by the Gates
Foundation now exceeding those of every national government on
earth apart from the United States, the WHO clearly no longer has
any independence in the field of health.
Having traded its
scientific credibility for funding from business interests, its
advice on the prevention and control of diseases cannot be trusted.
The money donated by
Gates undoubtedly buys him a
lot of attention at the WHO...
Illustrating the extent
to which he has essentially 'captured' the organization, the picture
at the top of this article shows him sitting alongside Margaret
Chan, WHO Director-General between 2007 and 2017, at a press
conference in Geneva.
The sway Gates gained
over the WHO during Chan's tenure has led to him being labeled by
some as,
"the world's most
powerful 'doctor'."
As Politico has
pointed out, the size of his
contributions have brought him an outsized influence on the WHO's
agenda.
The first private
individual to give a keynote speech at a WHA meeting, Gates'
authority at the WHO is said to be comparable to that of a head of
state.
In this situation, it isn't difficult to imagine that, should Gates
ever threaten to withdraw his gigantic funding, the WHO would
inevitably bend its policies to suit his will. Indeed, it is said
that the appointment in 2017 of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as
the new Director-General of the WHO was made with Gates' support.
Clearly, having sold its soul to Gates and other business donors,
the WHO no longer represents the interests of patients.
The time has therefore
come for it to be replaced with a new global body tasked with the
goal of
making natural preventive health a
human right. Achieving this will require the creation of an
organization that is truly independent.
Avoiding the mistakes of
the WHO and its leaders will be essential for such a body to
succeed.
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