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‘They Got It Wrong’: Trump Lashes Out at WHO, Says Agency Minimized COVID-19 Threat

During a news conference Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said that the World Health Organization (WHO) "got it wrong" and "minimized the threat" early on in regards to the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Sputnik

Trump added that his administration would be studying the WHO's response to the coronavirus outbreak.

"So, we're going to do [a] study investigation and we're going to make a determination as to what we're doing [in regards to the WHO]," Trump noted.

"The World WHO, World Health, they got it wrong. In many ways they were wrong," he continued.

​During a Tuesday briefing, Trump echoed similar sentiments threatening to withhold funding from the organization.

“They did give us some pretty bad play calling ... with regard to us, they’re taking a lot of heat because they didn’t want the borders closed, they called it wrong. They really called, I would say, every aspect of it wrong,” Trump said at the White House news conference.

“They’ve been wrong about a lot of things. And they [WHO] had a lot of information early and they didn’t want to – they seemed to be very China centric," Trump added.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Trump to stop politicizing the coronavirus pandemic earlier Wednesday.

"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 said during a press briefing in Geneva.

​The WHO is funded by private sources and governments, with the United States being the largest contributor. Last year, Washington provided $58 million to the organization.

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