NPR

'We Alerted The World' To Coronavirus On Jan. 5, WHO Says In Response To U.S.

President Trump said the health agency delayed raising the alarm on the threat from the new coronavirus. A WHO expert says that in early January, the World Health Organization "was very, very clear."
Experts from the World Health Organization say they gave explicit warnings about the risks of the COVID-19 outbreak in early January, after President Trump accused the agency of obscuring the truth in his remarks to the press this week. Above: WHO headquarters in Geneva.

"We regret the decision of the president of the United States to order a halt in funding to the World Health Organization," WHO Direct0r-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday in response to President Trump's plan to stop U.S. money from going to the agency.

The U.S. is the top contributor to WHO, which is leading the fight against the COVID-19 global pandemic.

On Tuesday, Trump of "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus." He also said the organization is overly influenced by China and was too trusting of that country, particularly in the early phase of the outbreak.

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