WHO Leadership has Failed to Answer Basic Questions about China

As member of the House Appropriations and Intelligence Committees, I today sent letters to every member nation of the World Health Organization (WHO) with U.S.-relations to request support in getting answers from WHO on its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and favoritism towards the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The World Health Organization has been a reliable partner for all member states in supporting global health initiatives, but it’s preferential treatment toward China throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has undermined the power of their organization. The WHO, while holding other member states accountable and voicing clear displeasure when they saw countries failing to do enough, potentially facilitated the CCP’s inadequate response to the crisis, putting the entire world at risk.

My letters request fellow WHO member nations to join the United States in petitioning WHO leadership to answer several questions, which WHO has still failed to answer. The concerning issues are surrounding: the origin of the virus, which are critical to the development of treatments and vaccines and in understanding how this virus has and will continue to mutate; WHO’s failure to address racial discrimination encountered by African nationals in China during the country’s pandemic response; and the silencing of researchers and doctors who sought to warn the world about the virus. 

A copy of the distributed letter is available here. A list of countries the letter was sent is available here.