The Director-General (DG) of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, said that he has received death threats and racist insults in the course of leading the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. He noted that he has gotten abuse, racist comments and people calling him names. However, he said, ‘I’m proud of being black, proud of being Negro. I don’t care, to be honest…even death threats. I don’t give a damn’.
In a conference call, Dr. Ghebreyesus was asked if criticism from world leaders such as President Donald Trump of the United States of America made it more difficult to lead the WHO. He responded that he sparred with Mr. Trump, who wrongly accused him of unduly aligning with the Chinese in the battle against Covid-19. He urged Mr. Trump not to politicise the war on Covid-19.
‘Please quarantine Covid-19 politics. That is what we want. We do not care about personal attacks. We care about the lives passing every single minute unnecessarily because we [cannot] unite to fight this virus’, Ghebreyesus said. Ghebreyesus urged all world leaders and politicians to put aside differences and focus on the fight against the pandemic.
Source: Premium Times
Photo source: DFID – UK Department for International Development
