WHO director fires back at Trump—politicization will lead to more ‘body bags’

The comments from Dr. Tedros came after a rollercoaster press briefing from US President Donald Trump, who said he would be putting a hold on funding to the WHO, before eventually saying that it was something they would "look in to."

Trump repeatedly said that WHO had missed the call, had made mistakes at every turn, and was too "China-centric," saying they always "fall on the side of China."

"The WHO 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?" Trump said.

In response, Dr. Tedros said that politicization of the crisis would not move the fight against the virus forward.

“At the end of the day, the people belong to all political parties. The focus of all political parties should be to save their people. Please don’t politicize this virus,” he said.

“If you don’t want many more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it," he said.

Tedros then urged China and the US to fight the coronavirus together, saying that body bags would be "in front of us" if the two don't see eye to eye.

"For God's sake, we have lost more than 60,000 citizens of the world," Tedros said.

John Hopkins figures show that there have been 83,000 deaths globally.

When asked about the heavy criticism he is facing, Tedros said that he was "really focused on saving lives" and that he didn't mind.

“I don’t care because what I care is when humanity is insulted, when we don’t care, when we have more than 60,000 body bags.”