Defunding the WHO will disproportionately affect developing regions, Dean Dexter Voisin tells the Toronto Star

Professor Dexter Voisin, Dean of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, spoke to the Toronto Star about Washington’s decision to temporarily halt funding to the World Health Organization.

The defunding of the WHO will disproportionately affect developing regions, particularly in Africa, where there is a dearth of access to fresh drinking water, says Dexter Voisin, dean of Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto.

“It’s not just access to clean drinking water,” Voison said. “The WHO also provides access to health care, medication and testing. When you look at rates of global COVID rates reported in Bangladesh and India and Africa, the rates are small, not because the impact has been smaller, just because they haven’t had the ability to ramp up testing so the numbers are under-reported.”

Abandoning such countries in a time of need will impact the whole world, he said.

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