A doctor was one of three New York residents who filed a class-action lawsuit against the World Health Organization, claiming it misled the public about the coronavirus pandemic.
The WHO has faced complaints from the United States for amplifying Chinese claims regarding the virus and for opposing President Trump’s initial efforts for containment. As a result, Trump, who accused the WHO of disseminating “misinformation,” froze U.S. funding to the organization earlier this month.
The suit, filed Monday in the federal court in White Plains, New York, also accuses the global health organization of gross negligence in allegedly covering for China and its initial response to the spreading illness.
“The WHO mishandled and mismanaged the response to the discovery of the coronavirus and upon information and belief, engaged in a cover-up of the COVID-19 pandemic in China,“ read part of the suit, according to the New York Post.
It also accused the WHO of “causing and/or contributing to the subsequent spread of the coronavirus all over the world, including to the United States of America and the State of New York.”
The three plaintiffs reside in Westchester County, New York, which was one of the earliest U.S. hot spots for the coronavirus. The suit seeks unspecified damages from the WHO over the “incalculable” harm it did to the residents in Westchester County.
The WHO has defended its actions as it faces accusations of malfeasance.
“In the first weeks of January, WHO was very, very clear,” WHO Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Michael Ryan told reporters last week.
“We alerted the world on January the fifth. Systems around the world, including the U.S., began to activate their incident management systems on January the sixth,” he continued. “And through the next number of weeks, we’ve produced multiple updates to countries, including briefing multiple governments, multiple scientists around the world, on the developing situation. And that is what it was: a developing situation.”
