United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday alleged that China and the World Health Organization had misguided the world about the coronavirus pandemic in its early stages, by claiming that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the disease and people without symptoms could not spread it.
Trump called on the United Nations to hold China accountable for “unleashing the plague” onto the world.
“The Chinese government and the World Health Organization, which is virtually controlled by China, falsely declared that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission [of of the coronavirus],” Trump said during his speech at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly. “Later they falsely said people without symptoms would not spread the disease. UN must hold China accountable for their actions.”
The US president said China stopped domestic travel in the early days of the outbreak but allowed international flights to operate and “infect the world”. “China condemned my travel ban on their country even as they cancelled domestic flights and locked citizens in their homes,” he said.
Trump referred to the coronavirus as “China virus” and said that the world is now waging a “furious battle” against the disease. The US president then went on to list the efforts made by his country to contain the escalating health crisis. “We rapidly produced a record supply of ventilators, creating a surplus that allowed us to share them with friends,” Trump said.
The US president said that three coronavirus vaccines were in stages of clinical trials in his country and they will be mass-produced and distributed soon. “We will defeat the virus, we will end the pandemic and we will enter a new era of unprecedented prosperity,” he claimed.
Trump has repeatedly accused China and the World Health Organization of covering up the spread of the coronavirus in its early stages. He had declared earlier this month that the US will not join the global initiative to develop, manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine, partly due to the World Health Organisation’s involvement in the process. In May, he had cut off all ties with the global health body.
The coronavirus has infected more than 3.13 crore people across the world and killed 9,65,893 others, according to the Johns Hopkins University. US and India are the world’s two worst-affected countries with 68,61,211 and 55,62,663 cases, respectively. The US has reported more than 2 lakh deaths while’s India’s toll is at 88,935.
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