World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is China's puppet. Sorry, he is—everyone knows it. China bought the director-general race in 2017, making the WHO another battlefield in the world of geopolitics. China's tentacles latched onto this organization and now we can't trust it. When the Wuhan coronavirus was spreading like a brushfire in China, Wuhan Tedros declared to the world that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. That was a lie. And he's been consistent in praising China for its shoddy efforts to contain the virus; the nation sat on its hands for nearly a week when it knew this pathogen would likely become a pandemic. This is China's fault. Period.
And now, Wuhan Tedros has the stones to say that the world should have listened to the WHO on this matter. Hey pal, we did. Maybe you should have been more open about your assembly meetings concerning Taiwan, who has been shut out since you won the election. The island nation, and the real China, had data on this disease early as well. Taiwan has been remarkable in containing the spread, with less than 500 cases, 429 as of today, and only six deaths. China ordered its scientists to destroy laboratory samples of the pneumonia-like virus and then began a campaign of disappearing vloggers and medical staff who tried to raise awareness.
#BREAKING 'World should have listened to WHO' on #coronavirus: Director General Tedros pic.twitter.com/N7eua2j0JA
— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 27, 2020
Here's the video of @DrTedros stating that the world should have listened to the WHO "carefully" in January.
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) April 27, 2020
"I think that suffices the importance of listening to WHO’s advice." pic.twitter.com/dsoXdWrUBE
If the world had listened to Wuhan Tedros, the infection rate in the US would have been astronomical. Remember, the WHO and liberal America were against President Trump ending incoming travel from China and Europe. This saved lives (via WSJ):
Taiwanese officials warned WHO on Dec. 31 that they had seen evidence that the virus could be transmitted human-to-human. But the agency, bowing to Beijing, doesn’t have a normal relationship with Taiwan. On Jan. 14 WHO tweeted, “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.” The agency took another week to reverse that misinformation.
On Jan. 22-23 a WHO emergency committee debated whether to declare Covid-19 a “public health emergency of international concern.” The virus already had spread to several countries, and making such a declaration would have better prepared the world. It should have been an easy decision, despite Beijing’s objections. Yet director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus declined and instead traveled to China.
He finally made the declaration on Jan. 30—losing a week of precious time—and his rhetoric suggests the trip to Beijing was more about politics than public health. “The Chinese government is to be congratulated for the extraordinary measures it has taken,” he said. “I left in absolutely no doubt about China’s commitment to transparency.”
A University of Southampton study suggests the number of coronavirus cases could have been reduced by 95% had China moved to contain the virus three weeks sooner. Yet Dr. Tedros gushed that Beijing had set “a new standard for outbreak response.” He also praised the speed with which China “sequenced the genome and shared it with WHO and the world.” China didn’t do so until Jan. 12.
On Jan. 30 Dr. Tedros also said that “WHO doesn’t recommend limiting trade and movement.” President Trump ignored the advice and announced travel restrictions on China the following day, slowing the spread of the virus. U.S. progressive elites echoed WHO and criticized Mr. Trump. WHO didn’t declare the coronavirus a pandemic until March 11.
[…]
This record is tragic but not surprising. Much of the blame for WHO’s failures lies with Dr. Tedros, who is a politician, not a medical doctor. As a member of the left-wing Tigray People’s Liberation Front, he rose through Ethiopia’s autocratic government as health and foreign minister. After taking the director-general job in 2017, he tried to install Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe as a WHO goodwill ambassador.
China inevitably gains more international clout as its economy grows. But why does WHO seem so much more afraid of Beijing’s ire than Washington’s? Only 12% of WHO’s assessed member-state contributions come from China. The U.S. contributes 22%. Americans at WHO generally are loyal to the institution, while Chinese appointees put Chinese interests first or they will suffer Beijing’s wrath.
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And when Trump threatened to slash funding to the Chinese-influenced WHO, Tedros was right there to defend his employer, saying we shouldn't politicize the virus.
I wonder if the WHO could divert some of the US taxpayer money they have allocated for luxury travel to hire some PR professionals to tell Tedros to stop talking. https://t.co/NKZxegpqFt
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 27, 2020
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