Trump Shifts Blame to WHO for His Failure to Act Early on Coronavirus Threat
POINTING FINGERS
President Trump shifted blame to the World Health Organization on Tuesday for his failure to act early on the coronavirus, saying that the agency “really blew it.” “For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric,” the president said in a tweet, referencing the WHO. “We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?” His tweet comes after The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser, wrote a memo to the White House in late January warning that the coronavirus crisis could cause “a full-blown pandemic” and cost the “lives of millions of Americans.” After the memo was sent, Trump continued to play down the threat of the novel coronavirus to the United States, asserting that “we have it very well under control.” The Washington Post detailed the 70 days it took Trump to treat the coronavirus seriously after the initial notification of a coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.