WHO Returns To Praising China As Leaders Say They Don’t Believe U.S. Will Pull Funding

The World Health Organization has “renewed praise” for China, even as they’ve agreed to an investigative probe on their relationship with the Asian superpower — a relationship that may have allowed China to hide the true effects of the novel coronavirus and the extent to which the country was affected by COVID-19.

TIME Magazine reports that the WHO has returned to “day to day” conversations with China and is excited at research developments being made by Chinese scientists in pursuit of a coronavirus vaccine.

“Dr. Michael Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies chief, pointed to ‘day-to-day’ discussions with colleagues in China,” the outlet reported Tuesday. “He said the U.N. health agency and many governments are eager to understand the animal origins of the virus, ‘and I am very pleased to hear a very consistent message coming from China, which is one of openness to such an approach.'”

China, of course, appears to have worked alongside the WHO to hide the virus’ true nature, leaving many countries, including the United States, unprepared for the severity of the coronavirus epidemic. As late as January, the WHO was still parroting China’s messages on the virus, including that there was no evidence that COVID-19 could be transmitted from person-to-person.

Signs of a dangerously close relationship between China and the WHO prompted the Trump administration to announce an investigation into both parties, with President Donald Trump adding, in late April, that the U.S. would pull funding from the WHO if officials discovered evidence of a conspiracy to hide details of the pandemic.

WHO officials do not appear to believe Trump’s threat is serious, at least according to statements made last week, after the WHO agreed to an internal investigation into its role in the origins and spread of the novel coronavirus.

A WHO official, Politico reports, said Sunday that an American departure from the international health group would be “unimaginable” as the two parties have been “connected since the very beginning.”

“The United States, since at least 1902, has been the leader in global public health, and I cannot imagine an environment where the United States would not be in WHO and contributing to WHO as it does today,” Stewart Simonson, WHO’s assistant director-general of general management, told CNN per Politico.

“WHO was founded by the United States and other member states,” Simonson added. “WHO has benefited from enormous generosity from the people of the United States and almost incalculable technical support.”

Simonson also denied that the WHO and China worked to hide evidence of coronavirus’ spread and applauded his own organization for their response to the global health crisis.

The BBC reports that the WHO has now agreed to an investigation into its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s not clear whether the group has a timeline, or whether that investigation will come before or after other agreed-to internal probes, which have yet to begin.