US blames WHO for pandemic deaths as others demand global unity

The World Health Organization (WHO) is directly responsible for the coronavirus pandemic, the United States charged at an international conference on Monday, in sharp contrast to other countries that backed the UN health agency and stressed global unity.

“There was a failure by this organization to obtain the information that the world needed, and that failure cost many lives,” US Health Secretary Alex Azar said in a video message to the WHO’s annual conference that is solely devoted to the pandemic this year.

This was one of the main reasons for the pandemic, Azar said, while also blaming China for covering up the outbreak that started in the city of Wuhan late last year.

US President Donald Trump has suspended funding of the WHO in Geneva, accusing it of helping Beijing cover up how widespread and how dangerous coronavirus was after it broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

While various health ministers, country leaders and UN executives shared the US call for a review of the WHO’s performance of the pandemic, they stressed that fighting the coronavirus is more important right now.

The virus was able to spread across the globe because countries failed to fight it together, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in the WHO meeting that was held online.

“We have seen some solidarity, but very little unity, in our response to Covid-19,” he said from New York, referring to the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus.

Because many countries ignored WHO recommendations, “the virus has spread across the world and is now moving into the global south, where its impact may be even more devastating.”

Several world leaders called for increased funding for the agency, as well as for scrutiny.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that members “should continue to improve processes in the WHO,” French President Emmanuel Macron called for an “honest and rigorous assessment.”

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that he would launch such a review, reacting to a formal proposal by countries from all regions, including the European Union.

The multi-country proposal said that the review should also look at whether the WHO has adequate tools at its disposal.

Tedros pointed out that a separate routine probe by independent health policy experts from around the world has already drawn up some recommendations.

In a first interim report that was published on Monday, the experts found that the WHO’s outbreak alarm system should be reviewed, given that some countries reacted slowly to the pandemic.

This raises the question of whether the global health crisis declared by the WHO was “a sufficiently clear trigger” for country-level action, the report said.

While the review said the WHO reacted quickly to the outbreak, it also found that the UN agency’s emergency operations team “is overstretched due to the huge demand generated by the pandemic.”

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that his country will contribute 2 billion dollars over the next two years for the global fight against the outbreak, which has resulted in more than 4.5 million Covid-19 cases and more than 300,000 associated deaths so far.

The money is not only earmarked for health measures, but also for development aid for affected countries, Xi said.

Azar countered that the US allocated more than 9 billion dollars for the global Covid-19 response.

One issue of discord between the global rivals China and the US was defused when WHO member states agreed on Monday to tackle the issue of Taiwan’s status at the WHO at a later date.

Read also: Pompeo warns China over interference with U.S. journalists in Hong Kong

Nevertheless, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned Taiwan’s exclusion from the ongoing assembly and accused the WHO of succumbing to Chinese pressure, even though the US delegation did not object when the decision was taken to postpone the matter.

While the US and some of its allies wanted to admit Taiwan as an observer, China and African countries were opposed.

“We need multilateral institutions to deliver on their stated missions and to serve the interests of all member states, not to play politics while lives are at stake,” Pompeo said, adding that Taiwan’s containment of the virus was one of the best responses globally.

The WHO argues that it cannot invite Taiwan to its annual meeting without a formal decision by member countries, given that the United Nations recognizes China but not Taiwan. (dpa)