World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, under fire for defending China’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, has a similar history of covering for a government that repeatedly denied cholera outbreaks.
“A leading candidate to head the World Health Organization was accused this week of covering up three cholera epidemics in his home country, Ethiopia, when he was health minister…” the New York Times reported.
The Times reported that Tedros led Ethiopia’s public health at a time when it declared itself free of cholera for a decade by diagnosing patients with the disease as having “acute watery diarrhea” instead.
“In an interview, Dr. Tedros, who was Ethiopia’s health minister from 2005 to 2012 and remains highly regarded for his accomplishments then, denied covering up cholera,” the New York Times reported. “Outbreaks occurring in 2006, 2009 and 2011, he said, were only ‘acute watery diarrhea’ in remote areas where laboratory testing ‘is difficult.’ That is what the Ethiopian government said then and is saying now about an outbreak that began in January.”