Asked Wednesday at the World Health Organisations’s daily briefing in Geneva about the criticism from the U.S., the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus initially responded by saying he wouldn’t answer the question.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Tedros said. “We shouldn’t waste time pointing fingers. We need time to unite. … Let’s unite. … The worst is yet to come if we don’t rush to ensure unity.”

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“We will have many body bags in front of us if we don’t behave. When there are cracks at national level and global level, that’s when the virus succeeds. For God’s sake, we have lost, we have lost more than 60,000 citizens of the world.

“Even one person is precious, whether it’s young or old. More than a million cases, what re we doing, is this not enough, it is more than enough. Even the death of one person is a disaster when we can prevent it.

“So my advice, three things: Please, unity at national level. No using COVID for political punches. And then second, honest solidarity at global level and honest leadership from the US and China.

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Like the Cold War, we have less problems compared to (the) Cold War, those who have differences should join hands to fight it.” Tedros said

WHO’s Europe chief insisted a worldwide public health crisis was no time to reduce the budget of the entity working to coordinate an often-disjointed international response.

“We’re now still in an acute phase of the pandemic. This is not the time to cut back on funding,” Dr. Hans Kluge said, ignoring a question about whether European nations could help mop up any funding gaps.

Vanguard