Trump writes Tedros, Details WHO’s Connivance with China Over Covid-19, Gives Ultimatum

In his letter, Trump gave Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Chief of the World Health Organization (WHO), an ultimatum to initiate a reform of its activities and show independence from China within 30 days or risk having the US withdrawal of funding made permanent.

The US president, Donald Trump has written a letter to the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus detailing the organization’s misdoings with China concerning the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic.

Trump made his letter to Tedros public on Tuesday via his verified Twitter page.

In the letter, Trump accused WHO of cursing the deaths of over 4000 victims of the Covid-19 virus by siding with China and withholding vital information about the disease at the early stage.

“By the time you finally declared the virus a pandemic on March 11, 2020, it had killed more than 4,000 people and infected more than 100,000 people in at least 114 countries around the world.” Trump said in the letter.

The letter detailed events of how WHO sided with China to misinform the world at the early stage of the disease leading to a pandemic.

“The World Health Organization consistently ignored credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in early December 2019 or even earlier, including reports from the Lancet medical journal. The World Health Organization failed to independently investigate credible reports that conflicted directly with the Chinese government’s official accounts, even those that came from sources within Wuhan itself.“ Trump accused WHO in his letter.

Trump opined in his letter that the outbreak would not have dealt a catastrophic hit on the world if WHO had acted justly and timely.

“By no later than December 30, 2019, the World Health Organization office in Beijing knew that there was a “major public health” concern in Wuhan. Between December 26 and December 30, China’s media highlighted evidence of a new virus emerging from Wuhan, based on patient data sent to multiple Chinese genomics companies. Additionally, during this period, Dr. Zhang Jixian, a doctor from Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, told China’s health authorities that a new coronavirus was causing a novel disease that was, at the time, afflicting approximately 180 patients.“ Trump alleged in his letter.

Trump accused Tedros of bowing to pressures from the Chinese president not to declare the outbreak a pandemic in early January, 2020. An action Trump said prevented the world from reacting on time to mitigate the spread of the virus.

“On January 21, 2020, President Xi Jinping of China reportedly pressured you not to declare the coronavirus outbreak an emergency. You gave in to this pressure the next day and told the world that the coronavirus did not pose a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Just over one week later, on January 30, 2020, overwhelming evidence to the contrary forced you to reverse course.“ Trump’s letter read.

In the letter, Trump also accused WHO of praising-singing China’s handling of the pandemic while keeping silent as China allegedly punished several doctors for speaking out about the virus and restricted Chinese institutions from publishing information about the disease.

“On January 28, 2020, after meeting with President Xi in Beijing, you praised the Chinese government for its “transparency” with respect to the coronavirus, announcing that China had set a “new standard for outbreak control” and “bought the world time.” You did not mention that China had, by then, silenced or punished several doctors for speaking out about the virus and restricted Chinese institutions from publishing information about it.“ Trump to WHO.

Trump also accused Tedros of keeping silent as China racially profiled Africans in China in the course of the disease. Africans were forcefully quarantine and evicted from their homes and hotels in China in the wake of the pandemic.

Consequent upon his allegations, Trump gave WHo an ultimatum of 30 days to the World Health Organization to “demonstrate independence from China’ or risk having US funding of the organization permanently stopped.

“It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world. The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China. My Administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the organization. But action is needed quickly. We do not have time to waste. 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 and reconsider our membership in the organization. I cannot allow American taxpayer dollars to continue to finance an organization that, in its present state, is so clearly not serving America’s interests.“ He stated in his letter.

Trump’s Withdrawal of Funding to WHO

The united states had earlier temporally withdrawn funding to the World Health Organization accusing it of siding with China to misinform the World about Covid-19 in April, 2020.

The US specifically blamed Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, who was elected Director-General of the organisation with the support of China. Tedros is from Ethiopia and served as Addis Ababa’s Minister of Health and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Read Full Transcript of Trump’s Letter to WHO here.

Burundi Expels Who Team over Covid-19

In another development, REPORT AFRIQUE reported that Burundi expelled top WHO team in a Covid-19 crisis in the African country.

“Late yesterday afternoon I was made aware through a note verbale about this decision of the government of Burundi which has asked our WHO representative and three other persons, one of whom is a consultant … to leave the country immediately,” WHO Africa Director Dr Matshidiso Moeti told journalists early May.

The letter does not provide a reason for the decision. Diplomatic and administrative sources told AFP the foreign ministry aborted a similar attempt to expel the same four officials a month ago.

“They are expelled and the health minister has totally excluded WHO, accusing it of unacceptable interference in its management of the coronavirus,” a Burundian official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention described the move as “unfortunate” at a time when greater cooperation was needed to tackle the virus on the continent.