US President had accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of siding with China on coronavirus crisis, asserting that many people are unhappy with the global health agency and feel that “it’s been very unfair”.
WHO is facing a lot of criticism from all quarters, save China. Unlike Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping praised its role in advancing global battle against COVID-19. Many see it as the extension of ongoing war between US and China over the origins of the deadly coronavirus to the WHO.
President Xi on Thursday appreciated the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ efforts to advance the global battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a reply letter to Ghebreyesus, Xi said China will continue to provide support for the international community in combating the coronavirus disease.
WHO is facinga lot of criticism even in India. How it has handled the COVID-19 crisis was subtly criticised by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
At the G20 Virtual Summit Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a very diplomatic way, questioned the WHO. In fact, he suggested that the WHO now needs recasting. He said that it does look like the WHO does not have the kind of power that is needed to manage Covid-19 kind of global pandemics. He also wanted the WHO to be empowered to issue early warnings and also for capacity building and for working towards vaccines. He also said it was caught up in the last century.
US President Donald Trump is not alone in criticizing the WHO. Marco Rubio, who was the former candidate for the Republican party nomination, said there were several red flags in WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ relationship with China.
Many western countries including the US, and China’s rivals in Asia fear that since the world has changed, and China has emerged as a major global power, WHO is too afraid to upset it. It is being accused of suppressing the issue. It had not alerted the world in time about what was happening in China.
On 14 January, the WHO said there is no human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus. A Chinese epidemiologist, Zhung Nanshan, had on 20 January, said that human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus is possible. Tedros after that went to China. In China, he met Xi Jinping, and again made his statement praising the Chinese that they had been remarkably fast in catching the virus.
Japan on Saturday criticized the head of the World Health Organization, accusing him of being incapable of managing the coronavirus crisis.
Speaking at the House of Representatives in the capital Tokyo, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Asos slammed Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for his “inadequate evaluation to address the coronavirus outbreak.”
He also noted the petition on Change.org signed by 635,000 people so far, demanding the resignation of Tedros.
