The World Health Organization has "blood on their hands" over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its early denial that the virus could not be spread between people, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said.
Navarro was on Fox Business Network's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" Wednesday and accused the WHO and its director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of siding with China.
After referencing the "slaughter of tens of thousands of people around the world" due to the COVID-19 virus, Navarro said that on Jan. 14, "the World Health Organization was once again denying human-to-human transmission, even though Taiwan had told them there was such evidence of that two weeks earlier.
"And you know and I know, Lou, that it was because China was able to exert pressure on their puppet at the WHO, Tedros — he's from Ethiopia, a client-state of China. What's puzzling to me, Lou, is how the likes of the CNNs and MSNBCs and radical Dems could get in bed with that because this is one of the worst cases I've ever seen of an international organization not meeting its responsibility.
"There's blood on their hands, and it would be nice if this country were united on that because the evidence is overwhelming."
Navarro noted that it wasn't until March 11, when the virus had spread to more than 100 countries, that the WHO admitted there was a global pandemic.
China, meanwhile, purchased more than 2 billion masks between late January and the end of February, Navarro said, while publicly downplaying the severity of the outbreak.
China, Navarro added, "hid the truth from the world, people died."
The number of cases worldwide surpassed 2 million on Wednesday and more than 136,000 people have died from the virus. The U.S. has seen around 645,000 cases and close to 30,000 deaths.
President Donald Trump this week said the U.S. would pause funding the WHO as it investigates the United Nations-affiliated agency's links with China.
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