Republicans Call on World Health Organization’s Director-General to Testify before Congress

Tedros Adhanom, director general of the World Health Organization, shakes hands with Chinese leader Xi Jinping before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Jan. 28, 2020. Naohiko Hatta/Reuters

Republicans are calling on the Director-General of the WHO to testify in front of Congress, under to oath, following evidence that WHO provided false information to U.S. lawmakers about China’s actions related to the pandemic.

Republican members of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis along with full Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) are calling on Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to testify about the discrepancies in his answers to the United States about the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

Rep. Steve Scalise took to Twitter to announce the letter to the WHO Director-General.

“Americans deserve to know why an organization we helped fund: – Lied to Congress about China’s cover-up – Peddled Chinese propaganda – Hid the truth to shield China from accountability,” wrote Scalise.

“This revelation demands your complete and forthright response to the Committee’s previous request and sworn testimony before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis (the Select Subcommittee). Until you appear under oath, America and the world will not know the origins of this crisis,” the lawmakers wrote to Tedros (pdf).

GOP members first wrote to Tedros on April 9 about the WHO’s handling of the virus. In Tedros’s response to the committee on June 15, he echoed a claim published on the WHO’s website that the first cases were reported by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission to the WHO.

But the contradiction came when the WHO, recently updated the timeline to state that their organization initially learned about the virus from information on a U.S. website by doctors working in Wuhan, which was reported by The Washington Free Beacon.

“This revelation confirms that China failed to notify the WHO of the outbreak, in violation of the International Health Regulations (IHR) and must be held accountable. By refusing to disclose the truth, you have shielded China from accountability,” the letter says.

“Your public statements regarding the initial outbreak coupled with the WHO website and your June 15 letter to this Committee demonstrate an endorsement of the CCP propaganda efforts to cover up the origins of this virus and mislead the world,” it continued.

The Republican letter comes a day after the White House formally notified Congress and the UN of its intention to leave the organization, effective July 2021.

“Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities,” the President said. “Countless lives have been taken and profound economic hardship has been inflicted across the globe.”

“The world needs answers from China on the virus. We must have transparency,” the President added.

Trump and GOP lawmakers have criticized the WHO over their praise of the Chinese Communist Party’s “transparency” in handling the virus in its early stages.

ln the April letter Republicans asked the WHO why they denied human to human contact even when there was evidence of this from Taiwan, why the WHO waited to declare the virus a pandemic, and why the WHO told countries it was not necessary to restrict travel despite evidence to the contrary.

“This new information necessitates your immediate response. We renew our April 9, 2020 request for the briefing and all the documents and communications ... Please provide the previously requested briefing, documents, communications, and confirm, in writing, the requested individual’s attendance for transcribed interviews by July 15, 2020,” the lawmakers concluded.