The Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress have stepped up pressure on the World Health Organization, which Washington has accused of failing to deal with the Corona virus crisis, and threatened to cut funding for it.
After President Trump's attack on the organization and accusing it of siding with the country from which the epidemic originated, his administration today sent a detailed "indictment" of the United Nations organization.
A spokesman for the US State Department told the French press that the actions of the World Health Organization had resulted in the loss of human lives, as he put it.
The spokesman added that the organization was late in realizing the seriousness of the crisis, as it had not announced that the new Corona virus was a global epidemic until March 11, while China informed it of the outbreak in December.
He added that his country is very concerned about information that Taiwan informed the WHO as of last December that the virus could be transmitted from one person to another based on the transmission of infection between health workers in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic.
The US spokesman also expressed concern about not sharing Taiwan information with the global health community, pointing out in this context to the WHO's announcement in mid-January that there is no evidence of transmission of HIV infection between humans.
The US State Department spokesman considered that the World Health Organization once again put the policy ahead of the Public Health Service just as it does about Taiwan's status as an observer in the organization since 2016, he said.
Washington considers Taiwan's response, which was completely excluded in recent years from the WHO under Beijing pressure, to be ideal in the face of the epidemic, unlike China.
The US President has reiterated that the WHO has erred in taking very pro-China stances, and has threatened to suspend the significant US contribution to this institution that is managing the epidemic crisis.
According to official US figures, Washington contributes about $ 400 million, equivalent to 15 percent of the WHO budget.
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Polotico has revealed that Republican Senator Todd Yang invited WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanum Gebresos to appear before a US Senate subcommittee to answer questions about how the organization is dealing with the Corona virus pandemic.
Yang, who heads the Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Relations, accused the director of the organization of allowing what he described as the wrong Chinese response and misinformation of the Chinese.
Yang said he was angry at the WHO response and performance, noting that he had sent a letter to its director criticizing the organization's praise for China's initial response to the Corona virus as well as its reliance on data from the Chinese government.
In the excerpts released by the Politico website, the US Senator said he was optimistic that the Director of the World Health Organization will respond to the invitation and appear before the Subcommittee on Foreign Relations to answer the questions of its members, including with regard to the future of the US contribution to financing the organization’s budget as the United States the largest contributor.
The Director of the World Health Organization responded yesterday to the American criticism of the performance of his organization, and called on world leaders not to politicize the crisis resulting from the outbreak of the Corona virus, saying that he expects the continuation of American funding with the traditional support of the Republican and Democratic parties.