Just days after the president of United States Donald Trump said that he will stop using the term ‘Chinese Virus’, he has said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) ‘very much’ sided with China in the global pandemic.
Referring growing criticism of the global health agency over its handling of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak during the initial weeks, Trump said, “I think that a lot of people feel it‘s been very unfair, it’s been very much sided with China.” The US was president was replying to a question on whether he felt that WHO showed favouritism towards China over the issue of Covid-19.
Donald Trump was responding to a question on allegations made by Republican Senator Macro Rubio that WHO showed favouritism towards China. Although he also added that the organisation has “a lot of good people, a lot of good professionals”, he added, “But the fact is that I have heard for years that that is very much biased towards China, so I don’t know.”
Earlier, Trump had triggered a diplomatic war with China by repeatedly referring the Novel Coronavirus as Chinese Virus. Several leaders in the United States have been highly critical of both China and WHO of their handling of the situation, accusing them of hiding vital information and underplaying the crisis at the beginning.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that that China has put thousands of lives at risk. He said that the Communist government in the state is still denying to give information about the pandemic that the world needs to combat it. “My concern is that this cover-up, this disinformation that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in, is still denying the world the information it needs so that we can prevent further cases or something like this from recurring again,” he said. He also accused Iran and Russia of starting a disinformation campaign by blaming US for the virus. “They’re talking about it coming from the U.S. Army and they’re saying maybe it began in Italy, all things to deflect responsibility,” Mike said.
Republican Congressman Michael McCaul said that China’s handling of coronavirus is ‘one of the worst cover-ups in history’. He also accused US media of helping the Chinese Communist Party to spread propaganda against the United States. “They’re trying to cover up what really happened. In my opinion, this is one of the worst cover-ups in human history”, he said media on Tuesday. He also questioned the role of WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, saying that “that there were several red flags in his past with respect to his relationship with China.”
Similarly Senator Ted Cruz tweeted, It is deeply troubling WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu is helping the Chinese Communist Party obfuscate the origins and trajectory of COVID19, at the risk of health around the globe.
WHO and its director Ghebreyesus has come under severe criticism for their comments on the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, when it was already creating havoc in Wuhan in China. The organisation took long time in declaring a pandemic, leading to countries not being vigilant enough on time. In January, WHO had endorsed the conclusion of Chinese authorities that the Novel Coronavirus does not spread from person to person, and had said that it does not recommend any specific health measures for travellers to and from Wuhan. WHO also ignored Taiwan which had informed that it has evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus. Taiwan wrote to WHO in December 31 regarding this, but WHO was denying human-to-human transmission till mid-January. It may be noted that Taiwan has been denied membership of WHO due to objections of China, which considers the island nation as its territory.
