The World Health Organization faced a choice: to show its loyalty to the main donor – the United States or to support China, which successfully overcame the outbreak of coronavirus and could share real experience.
On Friday, May 15, reports Reuters, citing its own sources at WHO.
According to media reports, when the head of the organization, Tedros Adan Gebreisus, visited Beijing at the end of January and wanted to praise the Chinese government for its success in the fight against the new virus, his advisers suggested softening the message so as not to provoke Washington.
Tedros, in turn, was really impressed by the work of the PRC, as well as the knowledge about coronavirus that Chinese scientists managed to get. Therefore, the politician was adamant.
“We knew how it would look, and sometimes he may be a little naive about it,” the source said, “but he is also stubborn.”
Fears came true. When the head of WHO assessed the success of the Chinese leadership, US President Donald Trump criticized the organization, accused it of “aiding China” and froze funding.
However, according to sources, the organization really faced a choice between the need to cater to the political mood of the main sponsor and the need to combat the deadly virus pandemic.
Tedros knew about the risk of displeasing the American administration. However, he was even more afraid of losing collaboration with Beijing in a pandemic, two sources at WHO told the agency. Tedros considered the latter a far greater loss in terms of global health.