Non-contestant Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was re-elected this Tuesday in Geneva for a second five-year term at the helm of WHO (World Health Organization).
Tedros, who was barely attacked by the then Donald Trump government and President Jair Bolsonaro’s allies in Brazil, for succumbing to pressure from China at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, managed to survive politically thanks to the support he started to receive from Europeans. .
The Brazilian president even said he would not follow Tedros’ advice, as he would not even be a doctor, according to Bolsonaro. At WHO, recommendations are made by groups with some of the world’s leading healthcare professionals.
“I am responding to a case inside and outside of Brazil and I am accused of genocide for defending a different thesis of WHO. People talk a lot about WHO, is the head of WHO a doctor? not a doctor, did you know that?” said. Bolsonaro is still in 2020.
Prior to the attack, he had already caused discomfort when Tedros’ statements were manipulated to justify his own policy, which went against the recommendations of the United Nations body.
WHO has responded to the criticism. A spokesperson for the Agency pointed to the Ethiopian’s “strong experience” in public health and concluded: “I invite you to refer to Dr. Tedros’ biography.” Ethiopian Minister of Health from 2005 to 2012, graduated in biology from WHO. He holds a MA in Infectious Disease Immunology from the University of London and a PhD from the University of Nottingham.
After months of unrest, the Brazilian government has returned to dialogue with WHO. This week, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga met with Tedros in Geneva.
In fact, his appointment was partly an attempt by France and Germany to fill the void left by the Americans internationally.
He also won the sympathy of many developing countries by placing the issue of access to vaccines at the center of his speech. His advocacy of science and multilateralism has also resulted in a certain stability in recent months, at a time when the epidemic has reached unprecedented proportions.
But accusations were not lacking against his administration, including from Europeans who wanted a complete overhaul of the pandemic control system and WHO’s operations as the epicenter of his new mission.
He was competing against British David Nabarro and Pakistani Sania Nishtar in his first selection in 2017. However, it was heavily criticized by human rights activists and NGOs. His country is one of the authoritarian regimes on the African continent, and Tedros was its chancellor from 2012 to 2016. Before that, he was the Minister of Health.
But in the face of the armed conflict in Ethiopia, Tedros has taken a critical stance against the country’s authorities in recent months. According to him, the UN Health Agency doesn’t even have access to victims for drug delivery.
Ethiopian diplomacy tried to prevent Tedros from being considered for another term in office, accusing him of taking advantage of the director’s chair for “personal gain.” The speech of the Ethiopian ambassador, in which he blamed himself, was interrupted when he claimed that this was not the subject for discussion by the WHO Executive Committee.
Tedros’ first election, which counted as the Brazilian vote, was dominated by the fact that an African had never led WHO since 1948. While he was the minister of this ministry between 2005 and 2012, he still presented himself as a person who changed the health of his country. But, according to observers, the fact that he had the seal of China at that time was also fundamental. .
Assuming a formation whose credibility was seriously affected, the representative of the African continent became the target of harsh attacks. Organizations like Human Rights Watch accuse him of being part of the core core of the country’s authoritarian regime, accused of human rights abuses and repression by the UN. A group of 20 people wrote to WHO requesting that his name be disregarded.
Tedros was even criticized when he chose Robert Mugabe as one of the WHO ambassadors. The pressure was so great that he had to stop inviting the African leader.
The 2017 campaign also featured accusations that while he was health minister, he tried to strangle three cholera epidemics. This time, however, he was the only candidate.
source: Noticias
