A petition to oust the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom has now surpassed 500,000 signatures, Taiwan News reported.
On Jan. 31, a netizen named Osuka Yip started a petition titled, “Call for the resignation of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General,” on Change.org, citing Adhanom’s refusal on Jan. 23 to designate the novel coronavirus disease a global health emergency. The author said this was partially to blame for the number of infected cases increasing more than tenfold from 800 to more than 10,000 over the next five days.
“We strongly think Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is not fit for his role as WHO Director General. We call for the Immediate Resignation of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,” the petition reads.
It goes on to lament that despite the WHO’s supposed commitment to neutrality, Adhanom has taken the number of infected provided by China at face value. The vast majority of coronavirus infections have occurred in the communist country, which at the time of writing has counted 81,226.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) this week confirmed that it had warned the WHO about human-to-human transmission of Covid-19 on Dec. 31 last year.
On Jan. 22, Tedros praised China’s management of the epidemic saying he was “very impressed by the detail and depth of China’s presentation.” Nearly a month after Taiwan›s warning, a WHO delegation traveling to Wuhan finally concluded that “human-to-human transmission is taking place in Wuhan.”
It was not until Jan. 30 that Tedros finally declared the outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Tedros waited until the virus had infected 118,000 people and killed 4,291 patients in 114 countries to finally declare a global pandemic.
Since the petition was first posted, the number of infections worldwide has skyrocketed to over 480,000 and deaths have catapulted to more than 20 thousand. As global outrage rises over the WHO’s inept response to the pandemic, the petition had reached 513,177 signatures, by press time.
According to Taiwan News, the petition also pointed out that Taiwan continues to be denied access to the WHO.
Taiwan has 235 cases and two deaths, with most cases now coming from abroad, said the news outlet.
MDT/Taiwan News
Petition to fire Tedros: 500,000 signatures
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