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Trump threatens to end WHO funding

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he is consuming the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine. Trump also threatened to end funding for the World Health Organization. Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani weighs in.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: You're watching "On The Move" on Yahoo Finance. I'm Julie Hyman. Let's get some the latest healthcare related headlines now related to coronavirus, including what's happening with the World Health Organization. Once again, it's become a political football. Anjalee Khemlani is covering that for us. So there are threats now from President Trump to withhold, what, all funding from the WHO?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's correct. He said that he is going to be making that threat of a temporary funding cut permanent if the WHO, World Health Organization, "does not reform," end quotes, in the next 30 days. And that's something that is not entirely just the US alone. There were concerns yesterday at the World Health Assembly just about the role that China has played and how to move on from that as well as hold them accountable. We did see, you know, a showing of the two billion commitment from President Xi towards the support of the outbreak, but that really is not as much as necessary. And the World Health Organization has been struggling. As we know, the US is one of the largest, or the largest, rather, contributor to the World Health Organization, so it is going to be a concern.

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JULIE HYMAN: Adam, did you want to chime in on this situation or the situation with what the president had to say yesterday?

ADAM SHAPIRO: I do have a question for Anjalee, but it has to do with the president's taking of the drug-- I can't pronounce-- no one seems to be able. All the--

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Hydroxychloroquine.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Thank you. What's the reality of that? But more important, Nancy Pelosi, I don't know if she was just trying to egg him into some kind of tweet storm or not, she called him morbidly obese, and we know that goes right for the jugular with this president.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Yeah. I mean, there was a lot that came out as a result of yesterday's comments. It was a surprise to hear that the president is in fact taking this drug. We've heard repeatedly about how unsafe it is, about what the possible concerns are. Yes, it has been safe to use for some off-label uses like for lupus and for rheumatoid arthritis. But what the reactions could be for someone with coronavirus are still untested. We have heard anecdotal evidence on both sides where there has been harm proven or patients have been just fine. So there is a lot of questions about what in fact the president is taking and whether or not he is in fact taking. There have been some rumblings just, you know, lightly pushed out there that he could be being given a placebo and instead of the actual drug.

JULIE HYMAN: In any case, among the tests that have been done, I don't believe any have been done prophylactically, right? Someone taking hydroxychloroquine--

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Correct.

JULIE HYMAN: In order to try to prevent catching coronavirus. And it's my understanding that if it does work, it's because it harnesses the body's immune system, which as we know in some of these cases of COVID-19, they create-- what is it called, the cytokine storm, where your own immune system sort of attacks you, but that doesn't happen in all cases. So there's a lot of sort of complex medicine and science at work here.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Absolutely, yeah. And that's the thing that, you know, the trials are supposed to begin, and we know that the FDA also released that warning that, you know, the drug may not in fact work at all, and so really still questions remaining. No trials have been done, so as with the vaccines and the other treatments that we've been looking at, waiting to hear about that, Julie.