Washington:
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused the WHO of being “China centric” and said the world health body issued “faulty” recommendations at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The WHO really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric,” Trump said in a tweet, amidst allegations that the World Health Organisation has not been transparent on the issue of coronavirus and gave credence to the Chinese point of view.
There is a growing demand in the US to review its funding to the WHO.
“We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?” Trump said.
On Tuesday, nearly two dozen US lawmakers introduced a resolution calling on Congress to withhold funding of the WHO until Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus resigns and an international commission investigates the organisation’s role in covering up the Chinese Communist Party’s failed COVID-19 response.
“The WHO helped the Chinese Communist Party hide the threat of COVID-19 from the world and now more than 10,000 Americans are dead, a number that is expected to rise dramatically in the coming weeks,” said Congressman Guy Reschenthaler.
“The United States is the largest contributor to WHO. It is not right that Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars are being used to propagate China’s lies and hide information that could have saved lives. This bill will hold the WHO accountable for their negligence and deceit, he said.
Alleging that China covered up evidence of human-to-human transmission as early as December 2019, the resolution said despite the virus having spread to multiple countries by January 22, the WHO failed to declare a “public health emergency of international concern” until January 30.
These actions to delay and mislead had severe consequences for the world: a recent University of Southampton study suggests the number of coronavirus cases could have been reduced by 95 per cent had China moved to contain the virus three weeks sooner, it alleged.
The US contributions make up 22 per cent of the WHO’s assessed funds from member nations. In addition to the assessed funds, the US also provides voluntary funds through congressionally appropriated global health programmes and humanitarian accounts.
“Instead of working to save lives around the world, the WHO stood by and downplayed the severity of the virus so as not to offend Chinese officials,” Reschenthaler said.
