An explosive new report claims that Chinese President Xi Jinping actively pressured the director-general of the World Health Organization to delay a global warning about the coronavirus pandemic, according to the New York Post.
The report comes from the German newspaper Der Spiegel, citing an intelligence report from the German federal intelligence service Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). It claims that, in a phone conversation on January 21st, Xi asked WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom to “delay a global warning” about the virus, as well as to conceal information on the contagiousness of the virus, including human-to-human transmission.
The WHO immediately released a statement calling the claim “unfounded and untrue,” also claiming that Adhanom and Xi “have never spoken by phone,” and claimed that “such inaccurate reports distract and detract from WHO’s and the world’s efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The WHO, and Director-General Adhanom, has been widely criticized for its poor handling of the coronavirus outbreak. The organization infamously tweeted back in January that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus. Adhanom has faced widespread calls for his resignation, with reasons ranging from his close relationship with the Chinese government to the organization’s excessive travel budget. The United States has already cut off all federal funding to the WHO, and has instead redirected those funds to private charities.