New: China Pressured the WHO to Not Take Action on Wuhan Virus, the WHO Listened

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool
AP featured image
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, left, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), poses with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for a photo as he arrives for a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, Tuesday, July 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
Advertisement

 

Well, this isn’t a very good look for the World Health Organization. A new report is out, sourced to a senior intelligence officer, that adds another piece of evidence that China has been essentially controlling the WHO.

We’ve seen examples of this in how the WHO denied person-to-person transmission early on, even when it was obvious that was occurring in Wuhan. We’ve also seen the penchant of Dr. Tedros, Director-General of the organization, to back China and repeat their propaganda while sniping at the United States.

But if this latest report is correct, things were much more serious than just their attempts to cover for China publicly.

China pressured the World Health Organization (WHO) against declaring the coronavirus pandemic a global health emergency, a senior U.S. intelligence official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

That official’s account confirms aspects of Newsweek’s reporting, which cited a CIA report stating that China urged the WHO not to declare the pandemic a global health emergency.

Advertisement

The timeline is fascinating, and damning for Tedros, who appears to be at the center of the possible corruption.

The WHO, the health arm of the United Nations, was supposed to decide on Jan. 22 whether to declare a global health emergency, but WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus ended up delaying the decision until the next day.

In his statement announcing the delay, Tedros praised “the cooperation of China’s Minister of Health, who I have spoken with directly during the last few days and weeks.”

Tedros talked to China and then decided to delay the decision on declaring a world health emergency for a day. Clearly, someone got to him and gave him pause. Worse, he ends up not actually making the call for another week.

“As it was yesterday, the Emergency Committee was divided over whether the outbreak of novel coronavirus represents a PHEIC or not,” he continued. “Make no mistake. This is an emergency in China, but it has not yet become a global health emergency. It may yet become one.”

The WHO didn’t declare a global health emergency until Jan. 31.

The intel official alleges that the decision by Tedros was directly driven by pressure put on from China. The timeline certainly seems to confirm that, as the delay and subsequent decision to not immediately declare an emergency came after consultation with the Chinese.

Advertisement

The repercussions of this can’t be overstated. Putting the U.S. aside, much of the world was looking to the WHO for information and leadership during this time. Having an extra week to prepare could have possibly saved hundreds of thousands of lives by the time this is all over. This is especially true for the European countries that continued to allow travel from Wuhan in January as the WHO was signaling there wasn’t an issue.

Trump cutting funding for these people was one of the best moves of his presidency. How anyone can continue to defend an organization so obviously in hock to China is beyond me.

 

Recommended

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on RedState Videos