The World Health Organization on Wednesday responded to President Trump’s criticism by warning nations to avoid politicizing the coronavirus fight, saying it will divide nations and result in “many more body bags.”
“For now, the focus should be on fighting this virus,” WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said.
Mr. Tedros was responding to a question about Mr. Trump’s threat to withhold funding from the WHO over its stance toward China.
The president said the public health arm of the U.N. “blew it” in taking too conciliatory of a stance toward the Chinese government after the coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan in December. He also said it took them too long to call the outbreak a pandemic.
Mr. Tedros said finger-pointing and audits of what went wrong can wait until after the pandemic.
“If you want to have many more body bags, then you do it. If you don’t want many more body bags, then you refrain from politicizing it,” he added. “My short message is please quarantine politicizing COVID.”
The coronavirus has infected more than 1.4 million people worldwide and killed over 85,000.
Mr. Tedros said his focus is on saving lives, and “we don’t do politics in the WHO.”
“Why would I care about being attacked while people are dying?” Mr. Tedros said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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