Key US Senator calls for independent probe into WHO handling of COVID-19

NEW DELHI: US. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday called for an independent investigation into the World Health Organization’s (WHO) handling of the COVID-19 response.

“The WHO has failed not only the American people, it has failed the world with its flagrant mishandling of the response to COVID-19,” said Risch. “Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ apparent unwillingness to hold the Chinese Communist Party to even the minimum standard of global health and transparency hindered the world’s ability to blunt the spread of this pandemic. It is completely unacceptable that the world’s global health organization has become a political puppet of the Chinese government.”

“An independent investigation into the WHO’s handling of the COVID-19 response is imperative. The United States is the largest contributor to the WHO. Our valuable tax payer dollars should go towards investments to prevent the spread of disease, not to aid and abet cover-ups that cost lives and isolate portions of the world’s population on political grounds, as has been the case with Taiwan. I look forward to a truly independent and fulsome review of the WHO and an examination of the U.S.’s financial support for its efforts in the future, with an eye towards very significant reform or possible replacement of the WHO.”


Earlier US President Donald Trump tweeted, “The W.H.O. 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?”