Dharamshala, 16th August: It has been reported that the Chinese government conducted an “aggressive” influence campaign on the World Health Organization’s response to the initial Covid epidemic, resulting in the organization missing its chance to stop the pandemic. According to a Sunday Times investigation, Beijing is attempting to exert control over the agency’s decision-making, disrupt probes, and even install officials. According to the paper, the health body’s independence had been compromised ahead of the deadly virus’s global spread in early 2020.
According to the report, the WHO neglected to openly refute Chinese propaganda, delayed declaring an international emergency, and discouraged states from imposing travel restrictions on China to safeguard its economy. It’s also been stated that officials struck a ‘backroom arrangement’ with the Chinese to stifle the investigation into Covid-19’s origins.
This meant moving scientists away from the notion that the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan laboratory rather than wild animals found at a city wet market in December 2019. The WHO initially dismissed the hypothesis as “very implausible,” but specialists now believe there was “human error” at the lab. The US is putting pressure on the UK to investigate the possible cause.
Covid-19 has since spread over the world, killing approximately 4.3 million people worldwide. Close relationships between the WHO’s leadership and China have hampered the organization’s ability to challenge the government over the virus’s emergence, according to the study.
It has been argued that China has been using financial influence over poorer countries for some time to install its favorite persons in important positions at the WHO and other UN-governed organizations. Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a long-time ally of China, is at the helm of the WHO’s decision-making process. In January 2020, two months before the epidemic began, he paid a visit to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The former Ethiopian foreign minister is reported to have used his position to promote more appointments that favored Ethiopia over China, such as appointing Zimbabwean tyrant Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador.
Picture Credit: REUTERS
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