The World Health Organization delivered a rare criticism of China in light of the nation’s reluctance to allow experts to enter the country and examine the origins of COVID-19.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, called on all member states of the United Nations to join together in order to overcome the pandemic sweeping the globe. He revealed a group of international scientists were en route to Wuhan, the birthplace of the virus, to investigate how the disease came into being.
Tedros said he was “very disappointed” to discover that China had not yet finalized permits for the public health experts to enter the notoriously secretive country.
“Today we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in #China,” he said. “I am very disappointed with this news given that two members had already begun their journeys & others were not able to travel at the last minute.”
The WHO head said he reiterated to Chinese officials the importance of the mission, after which he was told that the permit process would be sped up.
“I’ve been in contact with senior Chinese officials & I have once again made clear that the mission is a priority for WHO & the international team,” he said. “I’ve been assured that #China is speeding up the internal procedure for the earliest possible deployment. We are eager to get the mission underway as soon as possible.”
Tedros’s criticism comes after long-standing allegations that the WHO improperly defended China’s handling of the outbreak of the coronavirus in the East Asian nation. The most prominent critic was President Trump, who canceled $62 million of U.S. funding for the WHO in April 2020.
“Throughout this crisis, the World Health Organization has been curiously insistent on praising China for its alleged ‘transparency.’ You have consistently joined in these tributes, notwithstanding that China has been anything but transparent,” Trump wrote in a letter to Tedros explaining his decision. “That is why it is my duty, as President of the United States, to inform you that, if the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent.”
According to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker, China, a country that was once the epicenter of the pandemic, has suffered fewer than 100,000 diagnosed cases. The U.S., India, and Brazil currently lead the world in numbers of cases, with 20.8 million, 10.4 million, and 7.7 million diagnoses, respectively.
