US President Donald Trump
once again on Monday attacked the WHO, saying the UN health body was a 'puppet'
of China. Trump claimed that more people would have died from coronavirus in
the country had he not imposed a ban on travel from China, which was 'opposed'
by the health agency.
"They (WHO) are a
puppet of China. They're China-centric, to put it nicer. But they're a puppet
of China," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I think they
have done a very sad job. The United States pays them USD 450 million a year.
China pays them USD 38 million a year," Trump said in response to a
question. Trump said the World Health Organization was against the imposition
of a ban on travel from China in late January.
"The World Health
Organization was against it. They were against me doing the ban. They said you
don't need it, it's too much, it's too severe, and they turned out to be
wrong," he said.
Trump said Democratic
Party's presidential nominee and former vice-president Joe Biden was too
against the ban. "Sleepy Joe Biden said the same thing. He said I was
xenophobic. I was xenophobic because I said you can't come in if you come from
China. You can't come into our country, very early. And Biden said I was
xenophobic," he said. "If I didn't do that ban, you would have lost
hundreds of thousands of more people in this country. It was a very important
ban. People don't like talking about the ban, but it was very important,"
the US president said, claiming that it was only he who wanted it. "We did
it and saved thousands of lives, hundreds of thousands of lives probably,"
he said. -- PTI