BOISE, Idaho — U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) called for an independent investigation into the World Health Organization's (WHO) handling of the COVID-19 response on Tuesday.
“The WHO has failed not only the American people, it has failed the world with its flagrant mishandling of the response to COVID-19,” said Risch. “Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ apparent unwillingness to hold the Chinese Communist Party to even the minimum standard of global health and transparency hindered the world’s ability to blunt the spread of this pandemic. It is completely unacceptable that the world’s global health organization has become a political puppet of the Chinese government.
Risch says an independent investigation into the WHO's handling of the COVID-19 response is crucial.
"The United States is the largest contributor to the WHO. Our valuable tax payer dollars should go towards investments to prevent the spread of disease, not to aid and abet cover-ups that cost lives and isolate portions of the world’s population on political grounds, as has been the case with Taiwan," said Risch. "I look forward to a truly independent and fulsome review of the WHO and an examination of the U.S.’s financial support for its efforts in the future, with an eye towards very significant reform or possible replacement of the WHO.”
Senator Risch is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
