The recent disagreements between the World Health Organisation  (WHO) and Donald Trump has received some attention from the South African media, but we seem to get only a part of the story. Our media seems unwilling to criticize China or the WHO in any way. The fact is, Mr. Trump has some justification for his comments, which are not reported on in SA.
Mr Ghebreyesus of the WHO has indeed been guilty of being “China centric”, in his handling of the pandemic. Let us consider the following:
1)     Taiwan notified the WHO at the end of December 2019 of the existence of a serious outbreak on the mainland, this warning was ignored, because the WHO doesn’t recognise Taiwan.
2)     At the end of January 2020 Tedros Ghebreyesus played down the severity of the virus and praised China for successfully handling the outbreak to the benefit of the world. At the same time, he also dismissed the closing of the USA borders to China as a gross overreaction.
3)     Only on March the 11th did Tedros Ghebreyesus declare the corona virus a pandemic. By this time the virus was already well established in Europe and America. This delay was caused by the WHO not questioning the information supplied by the Chinese Communist Party. This has led to many now referring to the virus as the CCP-virus.
4)     From the above it can be seen that Mr. Trump had sound reasons to be annoyed with the WHO. Instead of acknowledging his mistakes and perhaps even apologizing, Mr. Ghebreyesus launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump, even adopting a threatening stance, by saying Trump would see many more body bags.
5)     At around the same time Mr. Ghebreyesus also launched a completely unprovoked attack on Taiwan, accusing them of “racist attacks” on him personally.
 
Not all of the above points is reported on in the SA media. I am ashamed of our local media for not reporting the true situation. The only reason I can think of which would excuse them is the fact that all of our local media companies are at least part owned by China (via so-called, privately owned Chinese companies). They probably have restrictions on any negative reporting on China, and almost by extension, the WHO.
The other glaring omission in our local media is the developing story around the origin of the virus. The explanation of its origins being with a pangolin in the Wuhan “wet” market, seemed to have disappeared with the morning mist in SA, but the latest ideas surrounding the origin have simply not been published in SA. Reports now suggest that the virus was indeed cultivated in a laboratory. It just so happens that there are 2 such laboratories within a kilometre from the market. This information coupled with the attempts by the Chinese regime “cover up” the full extent of the virus, is very concerning. Instead of threatening Mr. Trump, the WHO should be investigating this matter.
 
Our president, in his capacity of Chair of the African Union, has come out in support of the WHO, which is fair enough. I just hope that he is aware of all the facts, and avoids getting involved in the spat between the big boys on the playground, the USA and China.