An online petition calling for the immediate resignation of World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus over his handling of the coronavirus crisis has reached more than 1 million signatures.

By Arthur Blok
The petition states that the WHO chief is "unfit" for his role and should step down immediately. Part of it is also related to Ghebreyesus's underestimating the coronavirus. "We strongly think Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is not fit for his role as WHO Director General. We call for [his] Immediate Resignation," the petition reads.

A failing WHO
Since 2017, the WHO has been managed by Ghebreyesus, a former Ethiopian minister. While campaigning to win the WHO post, Ghebreyesus was accused by health professionals around the world of covering up cholera epidemics in both Ethiopia and Sudan to avoid embarrassing the two African regimes.

His later decision to appoint Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, with a known record of human rights abuses, as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador, was received with widespread condemnation. It was labelled as a ‘campaign return favour’. He was later forced to reverse the decision.

The WHO chief was vehemently attacked by Donald Trump earlier this month. The American President has gone as far as calling for Ghebreyesus’ resignation and threatening to cut funding to the WHO. Trump, along with his key Republican supporters and sympathetic media outlets, has recently escalated a months-long campaign accusing the WHO of being biased towards China, and has demanded a congressional investigation.

When cases of a mysterious viral pneumonia first appeared in Wuhan last year, Chinese health officials silenced whistle-blowers and repeatedly played down the severity of the outbreak. At that time, the WHO instantly endorsed China’s claims, saying, for example, emphasising that human-to-human transmission had not been proven and that it was not necessary to halt flights.

After meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in late January, Ghebreyesus complimented the Chinese authorities on their handling of the crisis. They again downplayed the risk of the virus spreading, saying it was “minimal and slow”. Ghebreyesus did not set foot in the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, nor did the WHO experts' mission.

Inexplicably, the mission to China was only authorised as late as mid-February. It published a very vague report about the situation on the ground: the experts investigated the virus in less than two weeks, spent only two days in Wuhan, and were not allowed to investigate freely.

Call for resignation and investigation.
The petition alleged that instead of investigating and independently verifying the number of deaths and those infected within the Chinese provinces, Ghebreyesus relied on the word of the Chinese government, endangering global health.

"A lot of us are really disappointed. We believe WHO is supposed to be politically neutral. Without any investigation, Ghebreyesus solely believed the death and infection numbers that the Chinese government provided," the petition further stated.

The petition, posted to Change.org and translated into multiple languages, including French, Spanish, German, and Arabic, added that Tedros is "unfit" for his role as head of the organisation and should step down immediately.

Last week, Australia joined the United States in pushing for an international investigation into the origins. The spread of the novel coronavirus, with a focus on China and the WHO, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration might make permanent its cut-off of U.S. funding for the WHO.

Pompeo said he would not rule out a U.S. demand that Ghebreyesus be replaced. President Donald Trump suspended earlier this month all U.S. contributions to the organisation, after accusing it of being “China-centric” and of withholding information unfavourable to Beijing after the virus originated there late last year.

The petition against Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus can be signed here.