If a draft of a letter obtained by FNC’s Tucker Carlson show is legitimate, it looks like funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) will be restored by the Trump administration. A five-page draft letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus states that the administration will agree to pay what China pays to the organization.

Tucker Carlson Tonight staff say the White House has confirmed the contents of the draft letter and the plan for payment. Fox News broke the news Friday night during Tucker’s show. This is a change from the decision President Trump made on April 14 when he announced that funding for the WHO would be cut off in response to the organization’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Carlson took a moment to remind his audience about the reason for that decision – Director-General Tedros and other officials of the WHO spread Chinese propaganda rather than working transparently to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

“Dr. Tedros Adhanom has thoroughly disgraced himself and his organization for four years, but particularly throughout this virus epidemic,” Carlson said. “Remember, the World Health Organization attacked travel restrictions … as unnecessary and, needless to say, racist. They then spread the baldest kind of Chinese propaganda, [saying] the virus could not spread person-to-person.

“That killed people.”

The draft letter says that the Trump administration will restore at the level that China pays the WHO. In previous years, the United States paid $400M each year. Matching China’s contributions will only restore about 1/10 of funding by the U.S. from previous years. So, it’s really only partially restoring a financial commitment to the WHO by the Trump administration. That amount is subject to change if China decides to raise its commitment. Trump is open to raising his administration’s commitment, too.

“Despite [its] shortcomings, I believe that the WHO still has tremendous potential, and want to see the WHO live up to this potential, particularly now during this global crisis” the draft letter reads, apparently in President Trump’s voice.

“That is why I’ve decided the United States will continue to partner and work with the WHO …” it adds. “China owes a massive debt to the entire world, and it can start with paying its fair share to the WHO.”

“If China increases its funding to the WHO,” the letter adds, “we will consider matching those increases.”

Carlson says he is interested to know who convinced Trump to change his mind about offering any funding at all. Trump calls for “commonsense reforms” in the letter and “a universal review mechanism to publicly report on member state compliance with International Health Regulations … including timely and effective declarations of Public Health Emergencies of International Concern.” Tedros must also agree to stop allowing political pressure to influence public health decisions.

Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News medical contributor, expressed his opposition to this development. He wants Trump to reconsider this decision, calling the top officials at the WHO “thugs” and “international villains”. He was clear to separate the top officials from the “worker bees”, as was Carlson. He also pointed out that Tedros isn’t a medical doctor. Siegel wants Trump to insist on a huge overhaul at the WHO before signing on to payments to the organization.

Siegel called for Dr. Anthony Fauci to consider re-thinking his friendship with Tedros, of whom he speaks favorably.

Siegel added that although he respects American virologist Dr. Tony Fauci — who Carlson noted offered effusive praise for Ghebreyesus during a White House event earlier this year — the NIH official has a poor “choice of friends” if he likes Ghebreyesus.

“…especially a friend who is running an organization like the World Health Organization with what’s happened here,” Siegel remarked.

Carlson and Siegel weren’t ganging up on Fauci, though. Tucker said he thinks Fauci is doing the best he can during this pandemic but noted that Fauci speaks of his long friendship with Tedros, dating back to the days Tedros was the Minister of Health in Ethiopia. Carlson reminded the viewing audience that during that time, Tedros was busy covering up multiple cholera outbreaks. So, there’s that. Tedros apparently doesn’t have a problem with manipulating the distribution of public health information which ultimately only makes people sicker. A public health official should be working to keep people healthy, not bowing to political pressure.

Seigel addressed the cover-up by the WHO on the coronavirus pandemic on behalf of China. He thinks officials should be prosecuted in an international court. They “aided and abetted the spread of the virus”. It’s hard to argue with that, isn’t it?

“On January 21, German intelligence reported, [Chinese Communist Party] Chairman Xi [Jinping] called him [Tedros] and said ‘delay warning the world’ [about coronavirus],” the NYU Langone physician went on.

“On February 3. Tedros, who’s not a physician by the way, praised … Chairman Xi’s commitment to stopping this outbreak, and then on February 15, he actually said at the Munich Security Conferences — Tedros said that the World Health Organization believed that China’s attempts to control this outbreak had bought the world time.”

Carlson remarked that it appears those in charge of international public health have instead “made us sicker,” and said Fauci should have been wary of Ghebreyesus given his purported “cover-up” of a cholera outbreak in Ethiopia when he was a senior health official there.

Siegel claimed that those officials should be prosecuted in an international court for what he called their “unbelievable disgrace.”

“The World Health Organization,” he said, “aided and abetted the spread of this virus around the world.”

The spread of the coronavirus pandemic is a good example of why people are skeptical about the effectiveness of large bureaucratic organizations. They become corrupted with millions of dollars floating around and nefarious actors, like the government of China, take advantage of weak leaders. We’ll see if Trump can get anywhere with some much-needed reforms now.