Pop music icon Lady Gaga gave the World Health Organization’s embattled boss a high-profile endorsement on the eve of an international performance to raise money for the organization’s anti-coronavirus efforts.
“Dr. Tedros, you’re truly a superstar,” she said to WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press briefing Friday. “Thank you so much to the media for telling the stories of all of these medical professionals and getting the word out about how underresourced their systems are.”
That praise comes just days after President Trump announced a freeze on U.S. aid to the WHO in light of Tedros’s opposition to American coronavirus countermeasures and the organization’s alleged acceptance of false information from China. Lady Gaga, who has partnered with WHO and Global Citizen to headline a virtual concert on Saturday evening featuring an ensemble of star musicians, announced that the production already has raised $50 million for the United Nations agency and local charities.
“During this time we have seen a coming together of a singular, kind, global community,” she said. “This triumph has instilled in myself and my colleagues a true calling to call upon the private sector and philanthropists to commit millions of dollars to support the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 response.”
That’s a reprieve from the recrimination that Tedros faces from U.S. voices. U.S. officials and lawmakers believe that he enabled China to cover up the coronavirus when it first emerged in Wuhan, thereby ensuring that the contagion would grow into the pandemic that has paralyzed the Western world.
“When the global warning function of the WHO fails, we need to know why,” Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, wrote Thursday evening in a letter calling for Trump to appoint a special envoy to investigate the WHO’s errors. “We must also be on alert when the integrity and independence of the world’s international health body has been compromised by the CCP.”
The virtual concert will feature the Rolling Stones, she revealed, along with appearances from dozens of other performers such as Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney.
“I share what Lady Gaga said: What the world needs is love and solidarity, so, please accept much gratitude and much love from myself,” Tedros said. “What the world needs is love and solidarity to defeat this dangerous enemy.”
