Coronavirus: Trump accuses WHO of being a ‘puppet of China’
President Donald Trump has lashed out again at the UN's health body by labelling it a "puppet of China".
The comment came hours after the US said the World Health Organization (WHO) had let Covid-19 spin "out of control" at the cost of "many lives".
"There was a failure by this organisation to obtain the information that the world needed," US Health Secretary Alex Azar said on Monday.
Mr Azar made the comments in an address to the UN's World Health Assembly.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus earlier agreed to a review over the agency's handling of the pandemic.
Dr Tedros said an independent evaluation, which would look at what lessons could be learned and put forward any recommendations, would take place "at the earliest opportunity".
The two-day assembly - an annual meeting involving 194 member states of the WHO that reviews the work of the UN's health agency - comes amid recriminations between the US and China over the virus.
US President Donald Trump, who faces re-election this year and has been criticised for his handling of the pandemic, has blamed China for trying to cover up the outbreak and has accused the WHO of failing to hold Beijing to account.
"I chose not to make a statement today," Mr Trump said on Monday about the event, while describing the body as "China-centric" and "a puppet of China".
He said the WHO had "gave us a lot of very bad advice, terrible advice" and were "wrong so much and always on the side of China".
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has defended China's actions during the outbreak, said at Monday's virtual meeting that his country had acted "with openness and transparency" and insisted that any investigation should happen after the pandemic was brought under control.
The two-day assembly - an annual meeting involving 194 member states of the WHO that reviews the work of the UN's health agency - comes amid recriminations between the US and China over the virus.
US President Donald Trump, who faces re-election this year and has been criticised for his handling of the pandemic, has blamed China for trying to cover up the outbreak and has accused the WHO of failing to hold Beijing to account.
"I chose not to make a statement today," Mr Trump said on Monday about the event, while describing the body as "China-centric" and "a puppet of China".
He said the WHO had "gave us a lot of very bad advice, terrible advice" and were "wrong so much and always on the side of China".
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has defended China's actions during the outbreak, said at Monday's virtual meeting that his country had acted "with openness and transparency" and insisted that any investigation should happen after the pandemic was brought under control.
