Los Angeles: AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has called upon the World Health Assembly (WHA) to dismiss Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus from his position as the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) at its upcoming 73rd WHA starting on May 17th and to seek the appointment of the former United Stated President Barack Obama as interim head of WHO to lead it through the COVID-19 response for a period of one-year.
“We urge the World Health Assembly to dismiss Dr. Tedros and to do all it can to bring in President Obama to help see us through this crisis,” said AHF President Michael Weinstein.
“Now that we know it’s very likely COVID-19 cases date back to at least November, and certainly December, it was unexcusable to wait four months to declare a pandemic. WHO is supposed to be our best early warning system, at which they failed horribly under Dr. Tedros’ lead. That, coupled with him not displaying sufficient independence from external political pressures, is more than enough to warrant his removal. There are simply too many lives at stake to wait to make this change,” he further asserted.
Tedros has stumbled in the most critical areas – most notably by praising China for transparency following an attempted cover-up, delaying the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and pandemic declarations, and relying on questionable data from China for critical decisions regarding COVID-19.
“President Obama has proven abilities in international diplomacy and strengthening cooperation among people from all walks of life – along with credibility at the highest levels of global governance needed to help shepherd the WHO and the global pandemic response through these unprecedented times.” added Weinstein.
AHF is the largest global AIDS organisation, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.4 million people in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe.
