WASHINGTON, April 10 — The United States on Thursday accused the World Health Organisation of putting politics first by ignoring early coronavirus warnings by Taiwan, which voiced outrage over criticism from the UN body’s chief. President Donald Trump has gone on an offensive with threats...
Director General of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference on the situation of the coronavirus, in Geneva February 28, 2020. — Reuters pic
Critics say that Trump’s sudden threats against the WHO amount to a political ploy to find a foreign scapegoat as he comes under fire for not doing more to prepare for and control Covid-19, which has killed about 15,000 people in the United States. The United States is “deeply disturbed that Taiwan’s information was withheld from the global health community, as reflected in the WHO’s January 14, 2020 statement that there was no indication of human-to-human transmission,” a State Department spokesperson said.
The Ethiopian doctor turned diplomat did not mention the United States — the largest donor to the WHO at more than US$400 million last year — but singled out non-member Taiwan. The comments sparked anger in Taiwan, which described Tedros’ comments as “baseless” and said it was seeking an apology for “slander.”
“We have been blocked from international organisations for many long years and we know what it feels like to be discriminated against and isolated more than anyone else,” she said.
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