The fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition. That creed remains our vision today. The United States of america has been a longstanding and generous friend to who, and we hope it will continue to be so. We regret the decision of the president of the United States to order a halt in funding to the World Health Organization with support from the people and government of the United States, who works to improve the health of many of the worlds poorest and most vulnerable people. Who is not only fighting covid19, we are also working to address polio, measles, malaria, ebola, hiv, tuberculosis, malnutrition, cancer, diabetes, mental health, and many other diseases and conditions. We also work with countries to strengthen Health Systems and improve access to lifesaving health services. Who is reviewing the impact of our work, of any withdrawal of u. S. Funding, and we work to fill any financial gaps we face and to ensure our work continues uninterrupted. Our commitment to Public Health and to serving all the people of the World Without fear or favor remains absolute. Our mission and mandate are to work with all nations equally, without regard to size of their populations or economies. Covid19 does not discriminate between race, nations, and poor, large nations and small. It does not discriminate between nationalities or ideologies. Neither do we. This is a time for all of us to be united in our common struggle against a common threat, a dangerous enemy. The viruse divided, exploits the cracks. When we are united, we are committed to serving the worlds people and to accountability for the resources with which we are entrusted. In due course, whos performance in tackling this pandemic will be reviewed by whos Member States and independent bodies that are in place to ensure transparency and accountability. This is part of the usual process put in place by our Member States. No doubt, areas for improvement can be identified and there will be lessons for all of us to learn, but for now, our focus my focus is on stopping this virus and saving lives. Who is grateful to the many nations, organizations, and individuals who are expressing their support and commitment to who in recent days, including their financial commitment. We welcome this demonstration of Global Solidarity because solidarity is the rule of the game to defeat covid19. Who is getting on with the job. We are continuing to study this virus every moment of every day. We are learning from many countries about what works, and we are sharing that information with the world. There are more than 1. 5 million enrollments in whos online courses through openwho. Org, and we will continue to expose this platform to train many more millions so we can fight covid effectively. Today, we launched a new course for Health Workers on how to put on and remove personal protective equipment. Every day, we bring together thousands of clinicians, educators, researchers, lab technicians, Infection Prevention specialists, and others to Exchange Knowledge on covid19. Our technical guidance brings together the most uptodate evidence for health ministers, Health Workers, and individuals. Yesterday, i had the honor of speaking to heads of state and government from 13 countries. It was inspiring to hear their experiences and their commitment to Work Together to secure a shared future. As a result of their experience with sars and avian flu, these countries have put in place measures and systems that are now helping them to detect and respond to covid19. We are also continuing to work with partners all over the world to accelerate research and development. More than 90 countries have joined or have expressed interest in joining the solidarity trial, and more than 900 patients have now been evolved to evaluate the safety and efficacy of 4 drugs and drug combinations. Three vaccines have started clinical trials. More than 70 others are in development and we are working with partners to accelerate the development, production, and distribution of vaccines. In addition to the solidarity trial, im glad to say that who has convened groups of clinicians to look at the impact of corticosteroids and other antiinflammatory drugs on treatment outcomes, specifically, we are looking at oxygen use and ventilation strategies in patients, any intubation that produces the need and improves outcomes for critically ill patients is important, especially in low resource settings, to save lives. Last week i announced the united , nations supply Chain Task Force to scale up the distribution of essential medical equipment. Yesterday, the first United Nations solidarity flight took off, transporting personal protective equipment, ventilators, and lab supplies to many countries across africa. The solidarity flight is part of a massive effort to ship lifesaving supplies to 95 countries across the globe in conjunction with the World Food Program and other agencies including unicef, the global fund, the United Nations department of occupational support and others. And africa cdc and african union. If its by land, sea, or air, who staff are working aroundtheclock to deliver for Health Workers and communities everywhere. I would like to thank the african union, the government of United Arab Emirates and ethiopia, and all our partners for their solidarity with african countries at this critical moment in history. And i would like to thank the chairperson of the Africa Commission for their leadership. The Solidarity Response Fund has now generated almost 150 million u. S. Dollars from 240,000 individuals and organizations. This saturday, some of the biggest names in music are coming together for the one world together at home concert to generate further funds for the Solidarity Response Fund, but not just to raise funds to bring the world together. Because we are one world, one humanity, and fighting a common enemy, and i thank lady gaga, the global citizens, and all that are participating in putting this concert together. We will continue to work with every country and every partner to serve the people of the world with a relentless commitment to find solutions and solidarity. I repeat, with a relentless commitment to science, solutions, and solidarity from who. Since the beginning, who has been fighting the pandemic with every part of our soul and spirit. We will continue to do that until the end. That is our commitment to the whole world. I thank you. Thank you very much for those opening remarks. As you know, we do send these opening remarks with an audio file after the press briefing, but even before that, these remotes are posted on our website if you wish to get them a little bit earlier. We will open the floor to questions, but please, make sure your questions are short, and we will take only one per person. If we are ready, we will try to go first to nbc. Can you hear us . Yes, can you hear me . Thank you for taking my question. My question is about funding. How much exactly does the United States government, not including the Gates Foundation or private contributions the government provide the who a year . How much have they already sent, and how much of what trump is withholding or threatening to withhold how much does that affect your program . I have said it in my statement, we are accessing how our programs will be affected, and not only that, we will try to fill any gaps with partners, so we will get back to you after our assessment is completed. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our colleague from geneva press corps. John, can you hear us . Yes, i can hear you. Can you hear me . Yes, please go ahead. Good afternoon. You just mentioned you are looking at the assessment on the shortfall in funding, looking at your budget. It looks like the shortfall will be around 115 million. Partners to transfer funds from other programs up to 5 from earmarked funds . Thank you, sir. I will repeat what i said again. We will do the assessment and then the announcement officially. Thank you. Thank you very much, director general. [inaudible] they criticized who for choosing politics over Global Health. How do you respond to such criticism . Thank you. The question was about taiwan and isolating taiwan. May be will take up the issue of working with taiwan, but there were multiple sources of reports on december 31 regarding a cluster of cases of atypical pneumonia in wuhan, china. They emanated from a press release or publication on the website of the wuhan health authority, and it was from that publication that many agencies, including our own epidemic intelligence sources picked up on that, and there was a flurry of communications between various agencies to verify that signal. It was who, then, who moved to formally clarify that signal through our Country Office with global authorities in china. May be to introduce, we have our colleague, principal legal officer, who will also add something on this topic. Thank you. Let me address the larger issue of the question that was just asked. I would like to do so in two parts, by addressing on the one hand, whos Technical Health mandate, and on the other hand, whos status as an International Organization composed of countries. On the one hand, there is who staff, doctors, scientists, researchers, among many others. They focus on technical and operational Public Health work. On the other hand, there are the Member States. The Member States decide on the political issues like membership, like observer ship, and they, these 194 members of the World Health Organization, they set the policies of the organization. It is important to understand that who is very much part of the United Nations. In 1971, the countries of the United Nations decided to recognize the peoples republic of china as the only legitimate representative of china. One year later in 1970 two, Member States of the world in 1972, Member States of the World Health Organization decided in resolution 25. 1 to do the same thing, and this has been the official position of the United Nations since 1971. Who is the Specialized Health agency of the United Nations and as such aligned with the United Nations and must do so coherently, so we are in the hands of countries on these issues. Who staff does not have the mandate or power to change that. Our mandate is to work to promote the health of all people everywhere. We do this again, as described by the dg, without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic, or social condition. This is part of the dna of the organization. It is literally written in the opening paragraphs of the who constitution. This means we work with and for all people everywhere, if they are in taiwan, china, or any other place, so i would like to provide some examples of the wellestablished arrangement for Taiwan Health experts working with who. I would like first to give five examples of activities in context of the covid19 response and then five more examples of activities in a wider context. 10 and all, but i will keep this concise. In the context of the pandemic, first, for the International Health regulations, the ihr, taiwan has a formal point of contact, a focal point. The ihr is the International Treaty which guides and regulates the Global Health response. The point of contact receives communications and provides information directly to who headquarters. It also has full access to the information site system and in a recent development, all ihr contact points have access to that system to the weekly information session from headquarters. Second, their Health Experts participate in two key who networks set up in january to support whos work in the global response. Three of their experts are part of whos ipc network, the Infection Prevention and control network. Two of their experts are part of whos clinical control network. Every week, they join a who teleconference, sometimes twice a week, with experts from around the globe working to advance our knowledge and guidance in the response. Third, two of taiwans Health Experts participated in the who Global Research and Innovation Forum that was organized in midfebruary for scientists participating from around the world. Fourth, who has briefed and discussed their response with Health Authorities in taipei. We spoke with him by phone in february and again earlier today, and work is under way to do so again. Fifth, who also interacts with their Health Authorities through the European Centre for disease prevention and control, so those are some examples relating to the pandemic. There are five additional examples i would like to share with you on a range of other healthrelated issues. First, over the course of last year, 2019, taiwans experts attended eight who expert meetings. More than one every other month. The issues they worked on included immunization, drugresistant tb, noncommunicable diseases and mental health, and work is under way for more of this kind of work in 2020 as well. Second, on influenza, a taiwanese vaccine manufacturer contributes to the who influenza preparedness framework. Its a critical access and benefit sharing framework. Third, and the fight against cancer, their exit experts have been published in Whos Research on cancer publication. Fourth, in support of the eye their articles have appeared in the blue book on classification of tumors. Fourth, in support of the eye term mechanisms ongoing, one of their leading Public Health experts is included in the prestigious ihr experts roster, and fifth, on issues from pharmaceutical manufacturing to malaria, we have exchanges on practical and technical issues, so those are 10 examples that underscore the principle that who works with all people everywhere. I would like to add that this work contributes to who, to the response, and to whos work in many areas of global Public Health. I hope that this information clarifies that who works together with experts and Health Authorities, and i would like to offer any opportunity to comment on todays discussions. Thanks. Briefly, yes, i had the opportunity to brief Public Health officials from taiwan. Its always a wonderful opportunity to exchange with any frontline workers and anyone who is involved with this pandemic, to learn from them, to Exchange Information and how all this information adds to our understanding of this previous unknown violent this previously unknown virus. There were two exchanges i have participated in, and im grateful for that. They also participated in our Infection Prevention and control networks. Again, having a direct exchange with peers from all over the world, and that is another example of how who brings world to share experiences, which is always very critical early on in an epidemic or pandemic when a lot is unknown. This is a great opportunity to be able to exchange and learning and feedback into our guidance, so that is what i would like to add. Thank you. Thank you very much for this comprehensive answer. That was steve solomon. We apologize if you did not have a name plate, but we will surely send out his name when we send out the audio file. We continue with questions. Irina, can you hear us . [inaudible] issue with other countries, particularly with russia. Can you repeat the question . Are you planning to discuss the budget issue with other countries, including russia . The who is part of a number of governing bodies. Im sure in the coming weeks and months, opportunities will arise as governing body meetings emerge. As the director general said, we are laser focused on doing an important job right now and that is suppressing this virus and saving lives. At 11 30ay on cspan a. M. Eastern, House Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy holds a Conference Call with reporters to discuss the Coronavirus Response and the houses legislative agenda. Then at 12 15 p. M. Eastern, speaker of the house nancy pelosi holds her weekly press conference, also be a Conference Call. We want to introduce you to the man behind the num