In a letter Thursday, a number of Republican members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee referred to as on Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Ethiopian politician who heads the worldwide well being physique, to explain why he has praised China’s “transparency” in the course of the disaster, which has been linked to almost 96,000 deaths around the globe as of early Friday, together with greater than 16,000 within the United States.

China has confronted quite a few accusations that it downplayed the outbreak in Wuhan, which is believed to have sparked the pandemic – thus hindering different nations’ capacity to adequately put together for the arrival of the virus inside their borders.

“Throughout the crisis, the WHO has shied away from placing any blame on the Chinese government, which is in essence the Communist Party of China,” the Republicans wrote to Tedros. “You, as leader of the WHO, even went so far as to praise the Chinese government’s “transparency” in the course of the disaster, when, in actual fact, the regime has constantly lied to the world by underreporting their precise an infection and dying statistics.”

The letter cites a January message on Twitter through which the WHO stated Chinese authorities discovered “no clear evidence” of human-to-human transmission of the virus, often known as COVID-19.

“On January 14, 2020, the WHO tweeted that ‘[p]reliminary investigations conducted by Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus’,” the letter states. “These preliminary investigations included China jailing any doctor that disseminated any information about COVID-19 not first cleared through state-run media.”

The letter additionally notes the position of U.S. taxpayers in supporting the worldwide group.

“In 2017, the WHO received 17% of its total funding, or $513 million, from the United States,” the letter says. “It is essential that American taxpayers’ money is allocated to organizations that uniformly serve the interests of nations across the globe, not merely the interests of China’s authoritarian, communist regime.”

After sending the letter, a number of of the GOP signees made extra statements. They included rating member Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Reps. Jody Hice of Georgia, James Comer of Kentucky and Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin.

“The World Health Organization should be ashamed that they relied on Chinese propaganda when deciding how to combat the coronavirus crisis,” Jordan stated. “President Trump is right to question the WHO’s role in global health going forward.”

“The World Health Organization should be ashamed that they relied on Chinese propaganda when deciding how to combat the coronavirus crisis. President Trump is right to question the WHO’s role in global health going forward.” — U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio

“This ‘apolitical’ organization praised the communist regime’s ‘transparency,’ spent weeks pushing the claim that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus, and even resisted President Trump’s early travel restrictions on China,” Hice alleged. “The United States is the largest contributor of WHO funding, and as such, we have a responsibility to provide oversight and demand reforms when necessary – as it has now.”

On Wednesday, throughout an look on Fox News’ “The Story” with Martha MacCallum, White House financial adviser Peter Navarro referred to Tedros as one of the Chinse authorities’s “proxies” as Beijing appears to be like to acquire affect over varied U.N.-run companies.

Navarro advised MacCallum that President Trump was critically contemplating chopping funding to the WHO after the president accused the company of botching the dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It all tracks to China’s view of the world and how they want to control different types of international organizations, even as they don’t play by the international rules,” he stated. “So it’s going to be up to the president to look at this.”

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., launched a decision within the House that requires the U.S. to defund the WHO till Tedros resigns and the United Nations-backed group is investigated over its relationship with China.

Previously, U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., referred to as on Tedros to resign throughout an look final week on Fox Business Channel’s “Mornings with Maria” with Maria Bartiromo.

In March, Tedros praised President Trump for his dealing with of the novel coronavirus outbreak and stated the president was “taking responsibility” for main the U.S. response to the pandemic.

Tedros has additionally acquired help from Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force.

“Tedros is really an outstanding person,” Fauci stated March 25 at a White House information briefing. “I’ve identified him from the time that he was the minister of well being in Ethiopia.

“I imply, clearly, through the years anybody who says that the WHO has not had issues has not been watching the WHO. But I believe beneath his management they’ve carried out very properly.

“He has been all over this,” Fauci added, referring to the coronavirus response.

Tedros declared a worldwide public well being emergency concerning coronavirus on Jan. 30, The Guardian reported. On the identical day, Trump advised reporters he didn’t consider the virus posed a critical menace to the U.S., the report said.