World Health Organization (WHO) director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged US President Donald Trump to stop politicizing the coronavirus pandemic.
"The focus of all political parties should be to save their people. Please don't politicize this virus. If you want to have many more body bags — then you do it. If you don't want many more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it", the WHO head told a virtual press briefing in Geneva.
The head of WHO noted that the United States and China should come together and "fight this dangerous enemy".
His statement comes a day after Trump attacked WHO during a press briefing. The President said his administration may freeze funding for the organization and said WHO "missed the call' in the early detection of the virus. During a press briefing and in tweets, Trump accused WHO of being biased toward 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?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020
WHO is funded by private sources and governments, with the United States the largest contributor. Last year, Washington provided $58 million to the organization.
Asked by reporters during the press briefing on Tuesday whether Trump would freeze the funding during the pandemic, the president replied: "I’m not saying I’m going to do it, but we’ll have a look."
Following the press conference, US Senator Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign operations , said he would not support US funding to WHO due to its current leadership.
