WHO Chief Urges Leaders Not to Politicize Coronavirus Pandemic
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned world leaders on Monday of the potential consequences of politicizing the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself, it’s the lack of global solidarity and global leadership,” Tedros said, according to The Associated Press. “We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world.”
The comments came during a video conference on Monday, for the World Government Summit, an annual event usually held in Dubai.
Although the WHO director did not mention U.S. President Donald Trump by name, Trump has been widely criticized both domestically and around the world for his decision to withdrawal funding from the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations. The president, who has refused to wear a mask in public, has also restarted his campaign with big, indoor rallies, as coronavirus cases continue to surge across the United States.
Simple cloth face coverings, which the WHO and CDC both recommend, have suddenly become controversial. Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb lamented the politicization of face masks, which are considered essential to slowing the spread of coronavirus.
“Masking has become controversial [but] it shouldn’t be. It’s a simple intervention, a collective action we can all take to help protect our fellow citizens and also to protect ourselves and reopen the economy safely,” he said.
Now Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is speaking out about what he sees as the largest challenge to tackling the coronavirus pandemic: a lack of solidarity.
“The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself, it’s the lack of global solidarity and global leadership,” said the WHO chief. “We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world.”
There was a jump of 183,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases around the world on Sunday, the largest single-day increase recorded since the pandemic began, according to Tedros, with worldwide infections surpassing 9 million on Monday.
Although it took the world over three months to see its first one million virus infections, the latest one million cases came in just eight days, said Tedros.