Trump calls WHO China-centric, blames it for bad advice during initial stage of Coronavirus outbreak

  • WHO delayed to declare Coronavirus as a global pandemic

  • Donald Trump said WHO "really blew it' on Coronavirus and criticised for the advice the agency had given considering the COVID-19 pandemic

  • Here is a timeline of how the health agency dealt of the COVID-19 outbreak

There are now questions about how the World Health Organization (WHO) reacted to the Coronavirus pandemic and how it selected its favourite side. The world leader who questions its actions is none other than US President Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, April 7 Trump criticized WHO while accusing it of being too focused on China and issuing bad advice during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Trump criticized WHO

The US President took it to the social media and wrote, "The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China-centric. 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?"

As of now, US has recorded 398,809 Coronavirus infection cases and more than 12,800 deaths in the country while the majority of the death toll has been reported in New York state.

donald-trump-on-border-wall-during-state-of-the-union-i-will-get-it-built
Donald Trump

Coronavirus situation became worse

If we go back in time, we will see that China reported its first case of the Novel Coronavirus in December 2019, from Hubei's Wuhan city, which was the initial epicentre of the outbreak. An article in 'National Review' revealed how China hid information about the virus at the beginning. Even though the first patient of COVID-19 was identified on December 1 and Wuhan doctors started finding several similar cases in the second week, authorities silenced the doctors from revealing the truth.

China continued to hide the healthcare emergency for three weeks and then reported it to the WHO on Dec. 31. Later, The Geneva-based organization declared the Novel Coronavirus a global pandemic in March while it declared a public health emergency of international concern, its "highest level of alarm", on January 30 after Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the visit to China. On January 31, the health organization, however, advised countries to keep their borders open despite the outbreak, although it noted that countries had the right to take measures to try to protect their citizens.

WHO misled the world nations

Even though by the end of January, people started assuming that the Coronavirus would surpass all the previous records of the outbreak including the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, but WHO has skill-fully delayed assessing the situation and announced the COVID-19 a pandemic more than a month after.

It should be noted that the delay in calling the Coronavirus a pandemic allowed the community transmission of the disease among global passengers, who are let go without quarantine but now returning to hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms.

Funded by the UN member states, including China which is the second-largest donor after the US, WHO had come under criticism earlier also. In 2014 the world health agency dragged its feet downplaying the severity of the Ebola epidemic that claimed 11,300 lives in three West African countries for over two years.

However, on Tuesday, April 7 WHO's China representative, Gauden Galea said that the Asian country has offered "compelling" examples in mounting rigorous containment measures against the new Coronavirus and mobilizing nationwide efforts to aid hard-hit regions in the nation.

Xi Jinping with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Twitter/Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
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