Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus has not addressed reports that China’s outbreak figures are doctored (Picture: AP)

The World Health Organisation’s director-general is under pressure to step down over claims he took China’s widely-suspected coronavirus statistics at face value.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the ‘transparency’ of China’s response to the outbreak in its early stages despite reports that authorities had silenced a number of doctors who tried to raise the alarm on social media.

Dr Tedros warned other countries against travel bans in early February, as China’s official infection count climbed into the tens of thousands, arguing lockdown measures in and around Wuhan were doing enough.

After sending officials on a ‘joint mission’ to evaluate the country’s outbreak later that month he concluded China had ‘bought time for the rest of the world’.


Dr Tedros, pictured here with Chinese President Xi Jinping, has repeatedly praised China’s efforts (Picture: Kyodo News)

Now a US senator has called for his resignation following reports the CIA found ‘a large-scale cover-up’ of China’s outbreak.



Republican Martha McSally told Fox News on Monday: ‘Dr Tedros deceived the world. This deception cost lives.’

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Earlier this month Japan’s deputy prime minister said the WHO should be renamed the ‘Chinese Health Organisation’ for toeing China’s line, referencing a Change.org petition demanding Dr Tedros step down which has gained almost 800,000 signatures.

China has officially reported around 82,000 cases and 3,300 deaths from the virus, lower than Spain, Italy, and the USA, which alone has counted more than 367,000 cases and around 11,000 deaths.

The lockdown in the epicentre of Wuhan will be lifted tomorrow (Picture: EPA)

The UK, whose population is less than five percent the size of China’s and has carried out far less testing, has reported 51,608 cases – almost two-thirds of China’s total.

Chinese government figures say around 2,500 people died of the virus in Wuhan, yet local reports suggest funeral homes are shipping in upwards of 500 urns a day.

According to Bloomberg and New York Times reports last week, CIA officials have been warning the White House for months that Chinese officials were vastly understating the number of cases and deaths.

They have been accused of putting the rest of the world on the backfoot as scientists had no other data to look at until the virus had torn through their own countries.

Chinese authorities have officially changed the way they record cases of the virus no less than eight times, and only started counting patients with no symptoms last week.

Critics say China played down the scale of the outbreak so it could restart its economy sooner (Picture: AsiaWire / Aletou)

Cases were initially only counted if they had all four of a list of specific symptoms, including pneumonia confirmed by radiography, and had travelled to or had indirect contact with a Wuhan market in the previous two weeks.

Daily counts began in January, despite the earliest known patient experiencing symptoms on December 1.

South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, claims to have seen government documents indicating the first confirmed patient may have caught the virus as early as November 17.

The lack of attention paid to symptomless carriers may have helped the virus spread across the globe while the WHO was still advising against travel bans.

Dr Tedros has failed to address criticism of China’s figures and as recently as March 20 hailed its ‘amazing achievement’ after reporting no new domestic cases of the virus for the first time.

Human rights campaigners have also raised concerns over the brutal way Chinese authorities enforced the lockdown (Picture: EPA)

Larry Gostin, a public health law professor who directs a WHO-affiliated research institute, told The Telegraph on Friday: ‘[China] delayed for three to four weeks before reporting a novel virus to the WHO which probably cost hundreds of thousands of lives globally.



‘Its record does not deserve praise.’

China denies doctoring its coronavirus statistics and has accused the US intelligence community of fabricating reports.

Allies of Dr Tedros reportedly have reportedly suggested his silence on the issues is a diplomatic measure to make sure China keeps sharing critical information.

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