Yahoo News Donald Trump slams World Health Organisation for being 'China-centric' in global battle against coronavirus
Donald Trump has criticised the World Health Organisation, accusing it of being too cosy with China and slamming its global coronavirus advice.
The US president's comments come after he ramped up his rhetoric against China last month, prompting an escalation in a bitter war of words between the world’s top two economies.
During a White House press conference, he openly criticising the country's response to the virus and repeatedly called Covid-19 the "Chinese virus".
Tweeting on Tuesday, Mr Trump took aim at the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has been issuing advice to countries across the world which have been battling outbreaks.
He wrote: "The W.H.O. really blew it."
The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
"For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look.
"Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?"
On Tuesday, Mr Trump also targeted a federal agency watchdog on Twitter, calling its data on medical shortages a "fake dossier".
He accused the US Health Department's inspector general of having produced a "fake dossier" on American hospitals suffering shortages on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak.
The president did not provide any reason for questioning the health department inspector general's report on critical shortages.
The findings matched up with what governors, mayors and local health officials have been saying for weeks - that hospitals nationwide had insufficient capacity to handle the surge of coronavirus patients.
But Mr Trump suggested the inspector general was politically motivated and asked why she had not spoken to admirals, generals, the vice president or others in charge before doing the report.
Why didn’t the I.G., who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration (Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died?), want to talk to the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge, before doing her report. Another Fake Dossier!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
"Another Fake Dossier," he wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, a senior Trump administration official on Tuesday called on China to allow the United States to work directly with laboratories in Wuhan on coronavirus research, saying this was critical to saving lives globally.
On Sunday, China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, said in a New York Times opinion piece there had been "unpleasant talk" between the two countries about the virus but that now was the time for "solidarity, collaboration and mutual support".
Mr Trump's criticism came after he notified Congress on Friday he was firing the inspector general of the US intelligence community, who was involved in triggering an impeachment probe of the Republican president last year.
His latest attack on the WHO follows Mr Trump's attack on Beijing last month when he said the Chinese should have acted faster to warn the world about coronavirus.
He also dismissed criticism that labelling the strain the “Chinese virus” was racist.
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