WHO covering up for China, says US Senator Martha McSally, calling for director general to resign

• Demand for Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to step down is part of escalating series of Republican criticisms of organisation
• McSally also wants US debts to China ‘forgiven, as a minimum’.
• US Senator Martha McSally is calling on the World Health Organisation director general to step down from his post over what she deems assistance in covering up for China's under-reporting of the coronavirus, part of an escalating series of Republican criticisms of the organisation.

  The Arizona Republican said on Fox Business on Thursday that Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus needs to resign over the organisation's handling of the virus, which originated in China.

  While China has claimed it has essentially flattened new cases of the deadly virus now killing thousands of Americans, new reporting has questioned China's rosy claims.
  “I’ve never trusted a communist. And their cover-up of this virus that originated with them has caused unnecessary deaths around America and around the world,” said McSally, who is up for re-election this fall.

  

  WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a Covid-19 news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in February. Photo: Reuters

  “The WHO needs to stop covering for them. I think Dr Tedros needs to step down. We need to take some action to address this issue. It’s just irresponsible, it’s unconscionable what they have done here while we have people dying across the globe.”

  Earlier this week, Senator Rick Scott called for a congressional probe into the WHO and indicated that perhaps the United States should withhold funding for “helping Communist China cover up” the ramifications of the virus.
• McSally agreed that “we need to look at addressing the WHO as well”. She also said US debts to China “should be forgiven, as a minimum”.
• Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the WHO, did not directly address McSally's demands. But he said the organisation expects members “to report data in a timely and accurate manner”.

  “Membership in WHO and signing up to the International Health Regulations both carry with it the responsibility to prioritise public health, nationally and internationally, not only because global health norms say so, but because the two are inextricably linked, as this global pandemic has made clear to the world,” Jasarevic said.