Covid-19: deprived of American funds, the WHO claims to have "nothing hidden in the United States"

The World Health Organization responded Monday (April 20) to attacks by Washington, which accused it of mismanaging the Covid-19 crisis. The WHO claimed to have "nothing hidden in the United States" on the coronavirus pandemic.

"Nothing has been hidden in the United States from day one," UN agency chief executive Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a virtual press conference, repeatedly hammering that "there was no secret at the WHO ". "We launched the alert from day one," he said.

Beside him, WHO director of emergency programs, Michael Ryan, said that there had even been since January 1 fifteen representatives of the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), seconded to WHO headquarters in Geneva, as part of the "response to Covid-19".

"Too close to China"

At the beginning of last week, the United States announced that it would suspend American funding for the WHO, accused of being too close to China and of mismanaging the pandemic.

The pressure increased on April 16 in the United States when Republicans in Congress called on President Donald Trump to condition the allocation of new funds to the resignation of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. They accuse him of having "failed" to respond to the coronavirus crisis.

Media briefing on # COVID19 with @DrTedros. https://t.co/rrXFYFvH6I

No secret at WHO

In Geneva, the head of the WHO firmly defended his position. "There is no secret at the WHO. Because if you keep information secret or confidential it is dangerous. There is no secret at the WHO," he said. heavily insisted.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also reiterated his call for "national unity" and "global solidarity", assuring that "we should not be afraid" of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Without national unity and global solidarity, I can assure you: the worst awaits us. So let's prevent this tragedy," he said, assuring that "politics was likely to fuel the pandemic".

The role of Taiwan

Washington deplores that its own measures in response to the crisis, notably the gradual closing of its borders, have met with "strong resistance" from the WHO, which "has continued to salute the Chinese leaders for their 'readiness to share information '".

The U.S. government has also accused the institution of neglecting key information about a possible transmission of the coronavirus between humans from Taiwan as of the end of December 2019.

The WHO once again categorically disputed on Monday that it had received such information from Taiwan, which has lost observer status with the UN specialized agency since 2016. "Taiwan doesn’t did not notify of human-to-human transmission, they simply asked for clarification as did other entities, "said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noting the email sent by the Taiwanese authorities to WHO on December 31, 2019.

"The letter from Taiwan sought clarification [...] based on the report from China," he added, stressing that the first report came from Beijing.

With AFP

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