The United Nations, UN, has defended the World Health Organization (WHO) against criticisms that it gave terrible advice during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in China.
The criticisms were coming from U.S politicians, including President Donald Trump, who alleged on Tuesday that WHO was “China-centric.”
Trump, speaking at the daily Coronavirus task force news briefing in Washington, accused the global health body of being too focused on China.
According to him, the organization made the wrong decisions about the initial coronavirus outbreak, including advising against border closure against China.
“The WHO blew it, they blew it, for some reason, funded mostly by the United States, yet very China-centric. We’ll look into that well.
“Fortunately, I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on.
“Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?
“We’re going to put a stop on money spent on WHO. We are going to put a mighty grip on it, and we are going to see.
“They seem to always err on China side, and we will look at ending funding because you know they called it wrong.”
Reacting to the development, Spokesperson to the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Stephane Dujarric, rubbished the criticism.
He stated that WHO had done great work on Coronavirus.
“For the Secretary-General, it is clear that WHO, under the leadership of Dr. Tedros, has done marvellous work on COVID-19.
“This includes supporting countries with millions of equipment being shipped out, on helping countries with training, on providing global guidelines.
“WHO is showing the strength of the international health system,” Dujarric told newsmen in New York, NAN reports.
China has recorded 81,708 COVID-19 cases and 3,331 deaths so far.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK