Breitbart reports, “World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday responded to President Trump’s decision to withhold United States funding, saying that now was not the time to point fingers.”
Ghebreyesus warned against politicizing the novel coronavirus after Trump threatened to cut off the organization due its disastrous handling of the outbreak.
“For now, the focus should be on fighting this virus,” he said at a press conference after he was asked about Trump’s move. “The focus of all political parties should be to save their people.”
“Please don’t politicize this virus,” he added. “If you want to have many more body bags, then you do it. If you don’t want many more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it.”
“We shouldn’t waste time pointing fingers,” he continued. “Let’s unite.”
The previous day, Trump announced he was suspending U.S. funding for the WHO. He called the agency “very China centric,” and tweeted, “the W.H.O. really blew it.”
The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020
Trump has repeatedly targeted the WHO and China over their early response to COVID-19, claiming the WHO, a United Nations body responsible for international public health, seemed “very biased toward China.”
China has been accused of hiding and destroying early evidence of the coronavirus found in Wuhan as early as November. Some of its officials have claimed that U.S. soldiers brought it to Wuhan.