WHO Director-General facing calls to resign over China apologism

U.S. politicians are calling on Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to step down for his trust in China’s official reporting on the extent of the outbreak, according to the Daily Mail.

A petition for his resignation has even begun and has received over 730,000 signatures on change.org.

One of the politicians who believes Tedros should resign over the “Chinese cover-up” is Republican Senator Martha McSally.

When speaking with Fox News, she noted that she “never trusted a communist” and added that China’s “cover-up of this virus that originated with them has caused unnecessary deaths around America and around the world...I think Dr. Tedros needs to step down.”

"Doctor Tedros deceived the world. At one point, he even praised China's ‘transparency during its coronavirus response efforts’ despite a mountain of evidence showing the regime concealed the severity of the outbreak. This deception cost lives.” Senator McSally said.

Tedros said that imposing travel restrictions was not necessary in February, after 17,238 coronavirus cases and 361 deaths were reported by China.

He said actions that “unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade” did not have to be taken.

Tedros posted a tweet on March 20 saying, “For the first time, #China has reported no domestic #COVID19 cases yesterday. This is an amazing achievement, which gives us all reassurance that the #coronavirus can be beaten.”

China has received many accusations of downplaying its coronavirus numbers and some estimates are suggesting that the country's death toll could be up to 40,000.

China has currently recorded over 81,000 cases and 3,300 deaths.

Activists in Wuhan, China are claiming that some funeral homes there are giving out 500 urns every day which would not be necessary for the provinces 2,548 official deaths.

While speaking in Washington DC, Republican Senator Ted Cruz said, “Once this pandemic is under control, WHO leadership should be held to account. That includes Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has allowed Beijing to use the WHO to mislead the global community.”

“At this moment, [Tedros] is either complicit or dangerously incompetent. Neither possibility bodes well for his future at the helm of this critical organization.”

Former US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley criticized a post released by the WHO on January 14 that said no evidence of human-to-human transmission was identified in China.

She tweeted: “The WHO owes an explanation to the world of why they took China's word for it. So much suffering has been caused by the mishandling of information and lack of accountability by the Chinese.”

Tedros has been the Director-General of the World Health Organization since 2017.