World Health Organization offices in Manila. Director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (insert). PHOTO: Getty Images & UNTV News ccording to Bradley A. Thayer and Lianchao Han, writing an opinion piece in The Hill, both argue that World Health Organization (WHO) director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and China's Xi Jinping should be held accountable for the coronavirus pandemic. They claim that Ghebreyesus "turned a blind eye to what happened in Wuhan and the rest of China and, after meeting with Xi in January, helped China to play down the severity, prevalence and scope of the COVID-19 outbreak." The Hill article, which was published two weeks ago, noted that from the start, Ghebreyesus "has defended China despite its gross mismanagement of the highly contagious disease. As the number of cases and the death toll soared, the WHO took months to declare the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic, even though it had met the criteria of transmission between people, high fatality rates and worldwide spread." It is worth noting, as the article points out, that "When President Trump took a critical step to stop the coronavirus at U.S. borders by issuing a travel ban as early as Jan. 31, Tedros [Ghebreyesus] said widespread travel bans and restrictions were not needed to stop the outbreak and could "have the effect of increasing fear and stigma, with little public health benefit." He warned that interfering with transportation and trade could harm efforts to address the crisis, and advised other countries not to follow the U.S. lead." Ironically, it is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that has now closed China's borders. Additionally, the CCP is now accused of turning a blind eye to the many blatantly discriminatory acts perpetrated against foreigners inside China due to the hysteria wrought by this pandemic. Ghebreyesus and the WHO appears to be bending over backward to accommodate China. Thayer and Han note that "when Xi ordered Chinese health officials to speed up the development of drugs by using "integrated Chinese traditional herbal medicine and Western medicine," the WHO's official publication, "Q&A on coronaviruses (COVID-19)," made a subtle change. Chinese netizens found a discrepancy between the Chinese and English versions of a list of measures deemed ineffective against COVID-19. The English version listed four items — smoking, wearing multiple masks, taking antibiotics, and traditional herbal remedies. The fourth item was not included in the Chinese version. (Today the English version also has deleted that item.)" To understand why the WHO seems highly deferential towards China, Thayer and Han postulate that "China recently pledged $20 million to help the WHO fight the COVID-19 outbreak, for which Tedros thanked Xi. But we note China's connections to Tedros's homeland of Ethiopia, now called East Africa's "Little China" because it has become China's bridgehead to influence Africa and a key to China's Belt and Road initiative there. Indeed, China has invested heavily in Ethiopia." Also, "Tedros was elected to his position with the WHO in 2017, despite the fact that he was not trained as a medical doctor and had no global health management experience. A former minister of health and minister of foreign affairs for Ethiopia, Tedros is an executive member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) political party, which came to power through a struggle in 1991 and has been listed as a perpetrator in the Global Terrorism Database. After he became the WHO's chief, critics questioned Tedros's attempt to appoint then-Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe as a WHO goodwill ambassador." The article comes to the conclusion that "the coronavirus pandemic has shown that Tedros is not fit to lead the WHO. Because of his leadership, the world may have missed a critical window to halt the pandemic or mitigate its virulence. The world is now battling rising infections and many countries have imposed restrictions. As leader of the WHO, Tedros should be held accountable for his role in mismanaging efforts to control the spread of the virus." We believe that both the CCP and the WHO have a lot to explain after this pandemic is contained. As of this writing, ABCNews reports that 33,000 people have already died from this pandemic. Thousands more are expected to die before this virus is brought under control. The global death toll might have been significantly less if the CCP and the WHO had not allegedly conspired to sweep this disaster under the rug during its critical early stages. The United Nations must initiate a thorough investigation and demand answers from those involved. Published 3/30/2020