A senator responsible for overseeing U.S. relations with international organizations wants the head of the World Health Organization to testify about his amplification of China’s false statements regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Chinese government’s systematic failure, a failure verified by our intelligence community, to accurately report the number of cases is damaging our epidemiological knowledge of COVID-19,” Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, wrote to the WHO.
“Rather than publicly and forcefully combat this obstruction, the WHO has assisted [it],” Young added in the letter, which was sent Wednesday but was released to the public on Thursday.
Young, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Multilateral Institutions, wants to convene a hearing on the WHO response “once it is safe to meet,” a conversation that could affect U.S. funding for the organization. The subcommittee “will be inviting you to attend as a witness before the panel,” he wrote in the letter to WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom.
That hearing will focus specifically on mistakes that Young believes were made by Tedros, the letter makes clear.
“Unfortunately, this pattern rises even to the leadership of the organization,” Young wrote, referring to the WHO’s endorsements of China’s response. “Even as little information was exiting China, and much of what did get out was contrary to the government’s claims, you praised the Chinese government for its transparency in its response.”
Young’s frustration stems from the WHO’s acceptance of Chinese claims at a time when Taiwan was already warning that the information provided by the mainland government was false.
“Hindsight is not a factor in this situation,” he wrote. “Taiwan made repeated efforts to inform the WHO about the highly transmittable nature of COVID-19, and was repeatedly rebuffed.”
Taiwanese officials had shared their concern about such transmission with the WHO in late December, but the organization didn’t share Taiwan’s suspicions with WHO member states.
Young suggested that the WHO’s acceptance of China’s inaccurate claims about how the virus spread has cost lives around the world.
“I am now left with deep skepticism about the WHO’s role in the global response to COVID-19, and fear that China’s influence in the organization has had overwhelming and dangerous consequences,” he wrote.
