Iran Press/ America: Accusing the WHO of giving bad advice, being “China-centric” and even withholding information, Donald Trump claimed to have stopped US funding in press briefings in recent days.
Directly responding to criticisms leveled by President Trump, the head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday defended the organization's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Please don't politicize this virus. It exploits the differences you have at the national level. If you want to be exploited and if you want to have many more body bags, then you do it," WHO Director-General said at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
"If you don't want any more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it. My short message is: Please quarantine politicizing COVID. The unity of your country will be very important to defeat this dangerous virus."
Senior officials at the World Health Organization have pushed back at calls by Donald Trump to withhold funding from the organization, and by Trump’s supporters for the resignation of its head, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The latest flare-up, which appears designed to distract attention from Trump’s record during the outbreak, has fueled concerns among WHO insiders that the campaign could dangerously undermine confidence in the organization's advice at a crucial time.
Conservatives, in particular, have charged that the WHO has been overly trusting of China’s reporting and thus slow to prepare the international community for the novel coronavirus.
Health experts described some of the criticism as warranted, arguing that the WHO could have taken a better approach in confronting the outbreak at the early stage.
Trump has also claimed that the WHO was suggesting the virus was “no big deal” before the US president announced his travel restrictions on China, restrictions opposed by the organization as ineffective. But far from suggesting the outbreak was “no big deal”, the organization had declared coronavirus a “public health emergency of international concern” on 30 January.
Meanwhile, the United States enters what is expected to be its deadliest week in its fight against the novel coronavirus, as its coronavirus cases surpass 435,000 with more than 14,790 deaths.
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