WHO Leader Tedros To Face Public Inquiry
World Health Organization leader Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week that he expects the nations that make up the global organization to investigate his actions in relation to the coronavirus pandemic.
“In due course, WHO’s performance in tackling this pandemic will be reviewed by WHO’s Member States and the 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,” he said, according to Sky News Australia.
“No doubt areas or improvement will be identified and there will be lessons for all of us to learn but for now my focus is on stopping this virus,” he said.
China, to which the WHO director-general has been accused of kowtowing in the early days of the outbreak there, is a member of WHO.
1. Who (no pun intended) is doing the public inquiry?
2. I doubt US funding will resume without the removal of him & other assets of China ??WHO boss Tedros says he’ll face coronavirus inquiry, vows to ‘learn’ from deadly ordeal https://t.co/Mn0Alz3WhQ #FoxNews
— George Pittman (@pittman_george) April 16, 2020
Taiwan, which tried to alert WHO in December that there was human-to-human transmission to the virus taking place inside China, is not a WHO member, having been booted out at China’s instigation.
The United States is also a member, although President Donald Trump has said he will freeze funding to the group pending an investigation into its activities.
“We regret the decision of the President of the United States to order a halt in funding to the World Health Organization,” Ghebreyesus said.
He called the U.S. a “longstanding and generous friend” but said WHO would “work with our partners to fill any financial gaps we face and ensure our work continues uninterrupted,” according to Fox News.
WHO’s actions have been condemned as “a litany of errors” by Martyn Iles, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, who said that the WHO acted to avoid creating a stigma about China.
“[T]he WHO lied, and people died,” he said, according to Sky News Australia.
Congressional Republicans have called for investigations into what the WHO knew about the outbreak in the crucial days of late 2019 and early January.
“We know how damaging that misinformation was and I believe there absolutely should be a review,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., told the Glens Falls Post-Star.
Sefanik said Trump’s call to stop funding WHO makes sense.
“When we’re talking about taxpayer dollars and we are in such a crisis right now, we should not be funding an organization that is putting out misinformation that is having an impact not just on lives in the United States but loss of lives and economic wreckage across the globe,” she said.
“And I do think as we do a look back on this, it will continue to raise concerns about the Chinese government’s failure to be honest with the international community and their failure to be honest with their own people,” she added.
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