A worldwide petition calling for the resignation of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has garnered more than 450,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning.

"On Jan. 23, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declined to declare China’s virus outbreak as a global health emergency," the petitioner said. "As we all know, the new coronavirus is not treatable at the moment, and the numbers of infected and deaths have risen more than 10 times within only five days."

Part of it is related to the WHO head’s underestimation of the coronavirus, the petitioner added.

The petitioner went on to say that he strongly thinks Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is not fit for his role as the WHO director-general and called for his immediate resignation.

The petitioner also claimed that the WHO has not stayed politically neutral in dealing with COVID-19.

"Without any investigation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus solely believes in the death and infected numbers that the Chinese government provided to him," the petitioner said. "On the other hand, Taiwan should not be excluded from the WHO for any political reasons. Their technologies are far more advanced than some of the countries on the selected WHO list."

In conclusion, the petitioner said, “Please help the world to gain faith in the U.N. and WHO again, the petitioner added.

The petition came after Ghebreyesus had been continuously criticized for siding with China in the WHO's response to COVID-19.

When he visited China in January and held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the global health organization head said, "We believe in China's ability to control infectious diseases."

The organization itself was also criticized after its international team of experts argued that the measures taken by China are reducing new infections and that the world was in debt to China.

If the petition reaches its goal of receiving more than 500,000 signatures, it will be sent to the U.N.

corea022@docdocdoc.co.kr

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