For Immediate Release
April 21, 2020
Contact: Grace Morgan
+1(202-855-4380)

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – IGOWatch, a coalition of 27 organizations from 16 countries representing hundreds of millions of taxpayers and consumers worldwide, called on all national governments to follow the lead of the United States and hold an immediate investigation into the World Health Organization (WHO) and to launch their own inquiries. Pending the results of these investigations, IGOWatch called on all governments to cease funding the failed WHO bureaucracy and instead work closely with the private sector to advance the public health priorities neglected by the WHO. The WHO has come under significant international scrutiny in recent weeks for chronically mismanaging the COVID-19 response and promoting misinformation spread by the Chinese Communist Party. 

Members of the coalition assailed the WHO’s failed track-record in protecting Coronavirus patients and called for increased transparency and accountability. 

“Having simply repeated Chinese Communist Party propaganda while the regime covered up Coronavirus cases and cracked down on brave doctors sounding the alarm, the WHO is directly responsible for the severity and magnitude of this pandemic. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus even praised ruthless Chinese President Xi Jinping for his ‘transparency’ and ‘political leadership’ while his subordinates arrested whistleblower doctors and forced them to retract their warnings about COVID-19. This is simply the latest in a long string of scandals, failures, and mismanagement in a crisis-prone organization dedicated only to supporting dictatorships and funding luxury travel for its bureaucrats. An investigation is desperately needed to ensure that taxpayer dollars are used to promote public health instead of bolstering ruthless regimes and funding luxury accommodations.” – Tim Andrews, Executive Director, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, United States of America 

“The actions of the WHO regarding the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic show how dangerous unaccountable supranational bureaucracies have become.” – Federico N. Fernández, President, Fundación Internacional Bases, Argentina 

“Given the devastating consequences of this health pandemic, it is crucial that the WHO be held to account for its actions.” – Aaron Wudrick, Federal Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Canada 

“Without strict oversight from member nations, international organizations like the WHO are extremely susceptible to capture from political special interests.” – Brian Garst, Vice President, Center for Freedom and Prosperity

“The WHO’s ineptitude and political cowardice has allowed a regional viral outbreak to become a global pandemic which has already killed nearly 150,000 innocent people. We must investigate the reasons why the WHO acted in the manner it did so that we can understand what needs to be changed so that the WHO can protect, instead of harm, the public health of this planet when the next, sadly inevitable, pandemic arises.” – Gary L. Kavanagh, President, Edmund Burke Institute, Ireland 

“The WHO is a corrupt organization which has consistently failed to deliver basic health services. Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for their incompetence.” – Brian Marlow, Executive Director, Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, Australia 

The coalition letter can be found online in English here, and in Spanish here.
The PDF version of the press statement is available here.

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