Pompeo continues to call out China for misreporting coronavirus information
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday continued to slam China’s ruling communist party for failing to report the outbreak of the coronavirus in a timely manner to the World Health Organization.
“We strongly believe that the Chinese Community Party did not report the outbreak of the new coronavirus in a timely fashion to the World Health Organization,” Pompeo said.
He added that even after Beijing notified the WHO of the outbreak “it did not share all of the information it had. Instead it covered up how dangerous the disease is.”
Citing WHO rules implemented in 2007, Pompeo said it's important that the required reporting standards be followed to protect lives.
President Trump announced that the U.S. will “pause” in funding to the WHO, which could last 90 days.
John Barsa, Trump’s acting administrator for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said the State Department was reviewing the WHO’s actions and is looking for different health programs and organizations the U.S. could fund – in lieu of sending money to the WHO.
“We're going with existing programs outside of the World Health Organization, and we're looking for different partners.”