The Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that WHO is transparent and does not take sides. (Image via TesfaNews)

WHO: We are transparent

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Medical and Health
Apr 21, 2020
1691
The World Health Organization (WHO) denied the accusation that it has been covering information about the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, asserted that there is nothing covered since day one. The statement came after the United States (U.S) condemned the underestimation of WHO.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Tedros said that he had warned the world about the COVID-19, and asked the international community to fight the pandemic together. In addition, he said that there is ex-U.S government staff in the WHO. Therefore, everything is in plain sight for Washington.

There are 15 persons from the U.S Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other U.S public health centers who have been cooperating with the WHO to monitor the pandemic. Tedros reasserted that WHO is hiding nothing from anyone. WHO is broadcasting notifications for countries to prevent the outbreak from happening.

U.S Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, doubted the WHO's action playing down Taiwan's report on 31 December 2019, about atypical pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province, Central China. Moreover, on 14 January, the WHO also stated that there was no such thing as human-to-human transmission.

The President of the U.S, Donald Trump, also accused the WHO of taking sides with China by covering information and giving false information on COVID-19. As the virus had spread to at least 200 countries and infected at least 2.4 million people, the U.S, as one of the main donors, is thinking about temporarily halting the budget to the WHO.

Regarding Pompeo's accusation, Ghebreyesus clarified that the first tip came from Wuhan, not Taiwan. Taiwan was only inquiring information from the WHO and stated that at the moment, no human-to-human transmission was detected.

Executive Director of the WHO's Emergencies Programme, Michael J. Ryan, also supported Ghebreyesus' statement, saying that the email from Taiwan to WHO did not say anything except what had been informed on the media.

Ryan said that atypical pneumonia is not something extraordinary, infecting millions of people at a specific time of the year.

Source: https://bit.ly/2VJRVT9

Medical , Health , Pandemic , Scandal , Politics , Coronavirus , COVID-19 , WHO , U.S , Donald-Trump , Mike-Pompeo , Tedros-Adhanom-Ghebreyesus