Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci says he’s “honored” to rejoin the World Health Organization (WHO) just months after a House GOP report found the WHO helped China cover up the coronavirus outbreak.
“I join my fellow representatives in thanking the World Health Organization for its role in leading the global public health response to this pandemic,” Fauci said in a statement Thursday, thanking President Joe Biden for rejoining. “Under trying circumstances, this organization has rallied the scientific and research and development community to accelerate vaccines, therapies and diagnostics … and relentlessly worked with nations in their fight against COVID-19.”
“The United States also intends to fulfill its financial obligations to the organization,” Fauci said.
For the two-year budget cycle of 2018 and 2019 the U.S. pledged $893 million to the WHO’s budget, $237 million of which was “assessed contributions” which is a due paid by a member nation and roughly $656 million in voluntary contributions, according to NPR.
The U.S. accounted for approximately one-fifth of the organization’s budget, according to WTSP.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the WHO in April after accusing the organization of not being critical of China and the coronavirus outbreak.
The WHO was found by numerous investigations to have helped China cover up the coronavirus outbreak.
A June report from Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee found the WHO “enabled” China’s cover-up of the virus’s outbreak and called on WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus–whom Fauci referred to as a “dear friend”–to resign from his post.
The report found Tedros “seriously erred in his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic” and that under Tedros the WHO “only exacerbated the problem by repeatedly ignoring warnings about the severity of the virus, including from their own health experts, while at the same time parroting the CCP’s propaganda without independently confirming their claims.”
The organization echoed China’s false talking points about the potential for human-to-human infection.
Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China????????. pic.twitter.com/Fnl5P877VG
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) January 14, 2020
Tedros praised China’s handling of the pandemic despite their extensive coverup that included punishing doctors who tried to warn about the virus and suppressing information about the virus that was circulating online. (RELATED: World Health Organization Pledges Not To Find ‘Guilty’ Party During Coronavirus Investigation In China)
“China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response,” he said on Jan. 30 after returning from a trip to Beijing.
A recent report from the WHO-backed Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response found China and the WHO could have acted sooner to combat the coronavirus.