Germany relaxes lockdown for playgrounds, churches and zoos

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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German authorities agreed Thursday to reopen playgrounds, churches and cultural institutions such as museums and zoos that have been shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic, but they postponed a decision on whether to relax the rules for restaurants, hotels and kindergartens.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said that while there would be regional differences because of Germany’s federal structure, the overall goal remains ensuring the health system can cope with the country’s outbreak.

“So far, we have managed to succeed in doing so,” Merkel told reporters after a meeting with the governors of Germany’s 16 states. “We have all together achieved a lot in recent weeks.”

Germany, a country of 83 million people, recorded more than 162,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 6,563 deaths in all, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That is about a quarter the number of virus-related deaths reported in Britain and France, even though the three countries have similar numbers of confirmed cases.

Over the past week, Germany recorded between 1,000 and 1,500 new cases a day, down from 2,000 the previous week.

The country’s success in flattening the curve of infections has sparked calls for its lockdown to end, particularly from businesses that have been forced to close because of social distancing measures.

Jobless figures released Thursday showed unemployment in Germany rose by 308,000 to over 2.6 million in the past month. The jobless rate in April stood at 5.8%, up from 5.1% in March.

Employers avoided the bigger layoffs seen in other countries by taking advantage of Germany’s short-work program, which allows companies in distress to receive state funds if they hold onto employees rather than letting them go.

Labor Minister Hubertus Heil said companies registered about 10.1 million employees for short work — more than a fifth of the country’s workforce. Restaurants, bars and hotels were particularly hard hit, with 93% of those employed in the sector now in short work, he said.

The governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Armin Laschet, told public broadcaster ZDF that the economic downturn was “a very, very high price that we’ve talked about far too little in recent weeks.”

Merkel said the federal and state governments wouldn’t make a decision on reopening hotels and restaurants at their next meeting on May 6, which will focus on further relaxing the rules for schools, childcare centers and sports facilities.

“Caution is required, as well as sticking to hygiene measures,” she said.

Federal and state authorities also agreed Thursday to extend a ban on large sports events, concerts and festivals until at least Aug. 31.

But Germany’s hospitals will be allowed to resume routine operations that had been ordered put on hold last month, after data showed a sufficient reserve of intensive care unit beds.

Still, like elsewhere, medical personnel in the country are feeling the strain.

“The burden is certainly great as we have to deal with a highly infectious disease every day, and the treatment regime is not clearly defined,” said Dr. Daniel Heidenkummer, who oversees the treatment of COVID-19 patients at the InnKlinikum Altoetting, near Germany’s border with Austria.

The hospital has treated almost 600 patients with severe illness resulting from the coronavirus since early March.

Restrictions on visitors mean that staff members have to spend more time tending to the emotional welfare of patients, a burden that would normally be borne largely by friends and family, Heidenkummer said.

Merkel acknowledged the sacrifices made by many Germans because of the lockdown. But she defended the virologists and public health experts who have been providing seemingly contradictory advice to the government, noting that there is always an element of uncertainty to scientific research.

“That’s why science is so exciting, because you never do the same thing twice,” Merkel said, citing her own experience as a physicist before entering politics more than 30 years ago.

“We politicians are there to draw conclusions,” she said.

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India has stepped up as a leader in fight against coronavirus, says American congressman

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India has stepped up as a leader in the fight against coronavirus, an influential American lawmaker has said, applauding New Delhi for providing the US with vital supplies such as mass quantities of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.

“The Republic of India is one of America’s closest and most important allies, and our relationship has always enjoyed bipartisan support in Washington… I am thankful that India has stepped up as a leader in the fight against coronavirus, and am glad that our special partnership remains strong during this pandemic,” congressman George Holding, the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, said.

In a statement, the influential Republican lawmaker from North Carolina also appreciated the role being played by Indian-American non-profit organisations and community organizations in the pandemic relied work in the US.

“On the US soil, Sewa International (an India-based service organisation) has been working tirelessly to donate masks, provide meals to first responders, and ensure vulnerable populations have access to food and medicine throughout the country,” Holding said.

Sewa has also provided support systems by hosting informative conference calls, while Indo-American hoteliers have stepped up and donated temporary housing to Indian international students in the United States, he added.

Holding said the Indian government has been hard at work both in their country and in the United States to help the international community fight COVID-19. “It’s amazing to see how one of our closest and most important partners can have such an impact in our country from nearly ten thousand miles away,” he said.

Together, the Indian and US governments have been able to identify measures necessary to propel us forward in the fight against this pandemic, Holding said.

India has shown that they are committed to keeping key supply and logistics chains open for pharmaceutical and medical products benefitting both the United States and India’s own regional neighbours, he added.

“In early April, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and President Trump worked together to overcome the challenges that international trade faces amidst national lockdowns. Since then, India has provided the United States with vital supplies such as mass quantities of hydroxychloroquine,” said the Republican lawmaker.

Also Read: Trump threatens new tariffs on China as U.S. mulls retaliatory action over virus

Observing that the US-India partnership has also directly impacted the lives of many Americans, he said as of April 16, more than 1,500 American citizens have returned home to the United States from India thanks to the facilitation of Indian authorities.

“It prides me to see that the sense of community supersedes borders and cultures during a time of international crisis,” Holding said.

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Coronavirus shatters silver screen dreams for Bollywood

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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That was the sombre assessment of about a dozen top producers, distributors and actors from Bollywood, the movie industry in Mumbai, during a video conference this week, one of the participants said.

“Making movies has always been a gamble, and now some of us can pack up for the next year,” said a film-maker responsible for many successful action movies, on condition of anonymity. “We will have to beg people to come to cinema halls.”

Such dim prospects, even after the lockdown is lifted, threaten the box-office takings that make up 60% of industry earnings, spurring producers to say big-budget films and extravagant shoots in foreign locations will be shelved.

“Films will have a tough time,” said Jehil Thakkar, a partner at accounting firm Deloitte India. “Even after they lift the lockdown, I’d expect the psyche of a lot of people would be to avoid crowded places.”

Bollywood has come to a grinding halt, with film production and theatres shut nationwide, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a 40-day lockdown to curb the virus, which has infected 31,000 people and killed more than 1,000 in India.

About 9,500 theatres are shut, and business at multiplexes and single-screen cinemas is unlikely to bounce back for weeks or even months, as infection fears linger and discretionary spending plunges.

“Theatres may not open before mid-June on a pan-India level and normal occupancy may not come back until August,” Karan Taurani, an analyst with investment firm Elara Capital, said in a note, adding they may have to slash prices to lure viewers.

Industry figures show India makes 1,200 films in a typical year, but Taurani sees big-budget movies getting pushed into the next fiscal year, as production houses battle a liquidity crunch amid falling box-office revenues.

For example, the release of Bollywood’s first attempt at a multi-hero action franchise, film-maker Rohit Shetty’s “Sooryanvanshi”, has been postponed indefinitely from a late March schedule.

“It is likely that even after theatres re-open, only smaller films will be released, so that producers get a sense of how many people are coming to them,” Shailesh Kapoor, head of agency Ormax, which tracks Bollywood films, told Reuters.

With such a re-opening unlikely until at least mid-May, and no new releases in the last month, trade analyst Girish Johar estimates lost box-office revenue at more than $130 million over the period.

“Everything will have to be calculated after the lockdown ends and when some form of normalcy returns,” said Bhanushali.

For Sakshi Bhagat, whose dreams of becoming a film-maker lured her to Mumbai in 2013 from the northern temple town of Varanasi, the lockdown has been a rude shock.

“It’s been so difficult to get payments from production houses for work I did,” said the assistant director. “No one wants to pay.”

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Trump threatens new tariffs on China as U.S. mulls retaliatory action over virus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday his hard-fought trade deal with China was now of secondary importance to the coronavirus pandemic and he threatened new tariffs on Beijing, as his administration crafted retaliatory measures over the outbreak.

Trump’s sharpened rhetoric against China reflected his growing frustration with Beijing over the pandemic, which has cost tens of thousands of lives in the United States alone, sparked an economic contraction and threatened his chances of re-election in November.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a range of options against China were under discussion, but cautioned that efforts were in the early stages. Recommendations have not yet reached the level of Trump’s top national security team or the president, one official told Reuters.

“There is a discussion as to how hard to hit China and how to calibrate it properly,” one of the sources said as Washington walks a tightrope in its ties with Beijing while it imports personal protection equipment (PPE) from there and is wary of harming a sensitive trade deal.

Trump made clear, however, that his concerns about China’s role in the origin and spread of the coronavirus were taking priority for now over his efforts to build on an initial trade agreement with Beijing that long dominated his dealings with the world’s second-largest economy.

“We signed a trade deal where they’re supposed to buy, and they’ve been buying a lot, actually. But that now becomes secondary to what took place with the virus,” Trump told reporters. “The virus situation is just not acceptable.”

The Washington Post, citing two people with knowledge of internal discussions, reported on Thursday that some officials had discussed the idea of canceling some of the massive U.S. debt held by China as a way to strike at Beijing for perceived shortfalls in its candidness on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump’s top economic adviser denied the report. “The full faith and credit of U.S. debt obligations is sacrosanct. Period. Full stop,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Reuters.

Asked whether he would consider having the United States stop payment of its debt obligations as a way to punish Beijing, Trump said: “Well, I can do it differently. I can do the same thing, but even for more money, just by putting on tariffs. So, I don’t have to do that.”

WAR OF WORDS
Seeking to quell a damaging trade war, Trump signed a first phase of a multibillion-dollar trade deal with China in January that cut some U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Chinese pledges to purchase more American farm, energy and manufactured goods and address some U.S. complaints about intellectual property practices.

Tariffs of up to 25% remain on some $370 billion worth of Chinese goods imports annually.

Trump has touted his tough stance on China trade as a key differentiator from Democratic challengers in the presidential race. Keeping tariffs in place on Chinese goods allows him to say he is maintaining leverage over China for a Phase 2 trade deal.

Speaking to reporters, Trump declined to say whether he held Chinese President Xi Jinping responsible for what he feels is misinformation from China when the virus emerged from Wuhan, China, and quickly spread around the world.

A senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday that an informal “truce” in the war of words that Trump and Xi essentially agreed to in a phone call in late March appeared to be over.

Washington and Beijing have traded increasingly bitter recriminations over the origin of the virus and the response to it.

Trump and his top aides, while stepping up their anti-China rhetoric, have stopped short of directly criticizing Xi, whom the U.S. president has repeatedly called his “friend.”

Among the other ideas under consideration for retaliation against China are sanctions, new non-tariff trade restrictions and a possible effort to lift China’s sovereign immunity, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Lifting sovereign immunity could allow the U.S. government and American citizens to file lawsuits seeking damages from Beijing in U.S. courts.

The options are being discussed, informally for now, across government agencies including the State Department, White House National Security Council, Treasury Department and Pentagon, two of the sources said.

The strongest pressure for action is coming from the National Security Council, including deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, while Treasury officials are advising caution, the sources said.

Conversations are at a very preliminary stage and significant action is not considered imminent, the sources said. When asked, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly said Washington’s priority at the moment is to fight the virus but that the time to hold China accountable would come.

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In lockdown, estranged parents can have electronic access to kids: Supreme Court

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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 A plea in the Supreme Court on Thursday sought direction to resolve the custody issue faced by a parent, who could not get custody of the children, due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown, which obstructed physical visitation.

The petitioner argued before the bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B.R. Gavai, that for nearly one and a half months, people have been locked in their houses, and it is taking a toll on the mental health of children.

“Child should be given contact with a non-custodial parent, at least in the case where the parent already has visitation rights, they should be allowed to contact children electronically,” said the petitioner. The hearing on the matter was through video conferencing.

The bench observed that in a custody dispute case where the mother does not allow the child to talk to the husband, the court cannot issue general directions. The petitioner urged the top court to lay down guidelines for those parents who are unable to interact with their children due to the lockdown.

The petitioner urged the top court for daily electronic access in the form of a minimum one hour video call to be facilitated between the child and non-custodial parents who have already been granted visitation rights by any competent court.

To this, the court said: “Learned counsel for the petitioners himself concedes that wherever the parties are mutually agreeable, they can always arrange for an electronic interaction and if there is resistance, they will have to approach the concerned family court for the purpose.”

The bench noted that if they pass orders and the custodial parent does not follow it, then the court will be flooded with contempt cases. “How can we issue nationwide directions? We would not know whether visitation is taking place or not.. we will make some observations on the role of family courts,” said the bench.

The top court noted that where visitation rights have already been given, then electronic access should be given, and if it is not done, then the aggrieved parent can move the family court, which is dealing with the matrimonial case.

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Modi directs India should reduce dependence on defence imports

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed that India should reduce dependence on imports and take forward “Make in India” to build its domestic capabilities in defence equipment.

It was discussed that defence expenditure be economised and the savings be channelised for strategic defence capital acquisition. Modi also stressed on the reforms to ensure a self reliant defence industry.

According to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Prime Minister on Thursday held a meeting to discuss ways to boost defence and aerospace sector, in which he emphasised strengthening the domestic capacity for designing, developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art defence equipment.

Modi held a detailed meeting to deliberate the potential reforms to ensure a robust and self-reliant defence industry in India that caters to short and long term needs of the armed forces and initiatives to give a boost to the economy in the backdrop of COVID-19.

The discussions involved reforming of the functioning of the ordnance factories, streamlining procurement procedures, focused resource allocation, encouraging R&D/innovation, attracting investment in critical defence technologies and promotion of exports.

The Prime Minister laid emphasis on positioning India among the top countries of the world in defence and aerospace sectors, from design to production, with active participation of public and private sector fulfilling the twin objectives of self-reliance and exports. He reviewed the proposed reforms for attracting domestic and foreign investment in defence sector.

During the meeting, it was discussed that defence expenditure be economised and the savings be channelised for strategic defence capital acquisition.

Issues relating to defence procurement processes offset policies, indigenisation of spares, transfer of technology, attracting global OEMs to establish manufacturing facilities in India, expanding our presence in international supply chains, etc. were also deliberated.

For India to emerge as a global leader in defence manufacturing, focus on the export of quality and state-of-the-art equipment/systems/platforms has also been emphasised.

The Prime Minister directed that India should reduce dependence on imports and take forward “Make in India” to build its domestic capabilities for designing, developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art defence equipment.

He emphasised on initiatives to promote export of defence products along with industry participation in global defence product value chain and to create an environment that encourages R&D, rewards innovation, creates Indian IP ownership.

The meeting was attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and senior officials of the government.

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At Asia’s biggest veg market, show goes on despite increasing Covid-19 cases

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Round the clock sweeping and disinfection is a new normal in Azadpur Mandi, Asia’s largest fruit and vegetable market. But despite implementing such extraordinary hygienic measures, buyers are a bit hesitant in flocking to the crowded market which has recorded over 15 positive cases of Covid-19 and has 14 agencies sealed on its premises.

“Adhering to social distancing, we have restricted the numbers of buyers…but the business will go on, this mandi is north India’s lifeline,” says Adil Ahmed Khan, Chairman of Azadpur’s Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC).

In fact, the real battle on ground zero here is about lives and livelihood.

“Over 1,000 big trucks, loaded with vegetables and fruits are reaching here every day. If we cease these operations, what will millions of people eat? The question is not about profit and loss, but about feeding the people,” Surendra Yadav, an agent trading in vegetables, told IANS.

“Four trucks of cabbage, arrived from Shimla yesterday. But surprisingly two truckloads of cabbage still remain unsold. The buyers are not turning up here in large numbers,” says Yadav who is ready to sell a sack of cabbage for as less as Rs 100, almost 50 per cent of its wholesale market value.

It’s not only the fear of Covid-19 pandemic, but restrictions on wholesale and retail agents have also brought down the numbers of buyers here.

Usually, the movement of trucks and smaller goods carriers at the sprawling market easily crosses the 5,000 mark on any given day. However, to adhere to the norms of social distancing these days, APMC has restricted the numbers of trucks and other transport vehicles of buyers to 3,300.

“Tough measures have to be taken. So now we distribute tokens for each truck or tempo entering into the mandi. We regulate the movement of vehicles on an hourly basis. For example from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m., early morning, we allow entry of only 300 trucks. During the next hour, a similar number of trucks are allowed. In between, we close the entry for a couple of hours. This token system goes on till late night,” says Khan, who remains busy chalking out strategies with officials for effective containment of the virus in one of the most crowded places on the globe.

While buyers think twice in entering Azadpur Mandi, hundreds of truckers carrying fruits from Kashmir or remote places in Himachal Pradesh, brave the pandemic to earn a livelihood. More than 30 trucks of apples from Kashmir Valley reached Azadpur on early Thursday morning.

“Because of the lockdown, buyers (from neighbouring areas) are unable to reach. Still, much of the consignment has been sold out,” says Mohammed Islam who deals in Kashmiri apples. The apple agent wears a mask and also keeps a bottle of sanitiser at his table.

The labourers who offload the goods from trucks and later load them into smaller vehicles have been provided masks. The local police and APMC officials inspect each of the shed to ensure that all 2,800 licensed agents follow the stringent norms laid down by the Health Ministry for containment of COVID-19.

In one of the bigger sheds, tonnes of onion, packed in 100 kg sacks, are all stacked up on the floor. Scores of trucks bringing quality onions from Rajasthan, Nashik and other places have flooded the mandi.

“One truckload of onions has been lying with me for the past two days. Though the price remains the same (Rs 400 per quintal), I hope the stock will be cleared if we get buyers in the coming days,” says Lallu, who serves as manager for a prominent commission agent.

According to Lallu, a large number of buyers who come from western UP and other places are not turning up.

The spread of the virus in a few shops here has also caused fear among a few.

“Let’s hope things will change after May 3,” says Lallu who expects that there would be considerable relaxation in the mandi after the second leg of lockdown ends.

Meanwhile, the APMC Chairman is holding meetings with the District Magistrate, Civic and Health Ministry officials to organise regular testing of suspects, many of them who could be silent carriers of the virus.

The APMC is also awaiting the report of over 50 people working in the mandi, who were tested for Covid-19 virus.

“I hope things will improve. At this moment I can only assure you that the show will go on…irrespective of the outcome of the test reports,” said Khan, whose eyes blinked for a while as he readied to walk into another meeting.

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‘Ramayan’ breaks all records, becomes world’s most-watched show

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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 Ramanand Sagars popular TV serial ‘Ramayan’ which is re-airing on Doordarshan became the world’s most-watched show on April 16 with 7.7 crore viewers, DD India posted on its official Twitter handle on late Thursday night.

‘Ramayan’ is being telecast again since March 28 on public demand. In fact, when it was telecast for the first time, the serial had broken all records of popularity, and the show has repeated its history again.

Ramanand Sagar had made a total of 78 episodes of this serial based on Valmiki’s Ramayana and Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas.

For the first time in the country, the serial was originally broadcast from January 25, 1987 to July 31, 1988. Then, every Sunday, at 9.30 a.m. the show was aired on TV.

From 1987 to 1988, ‘Ramayan’ became the most-watched serial in the world. Till June 2003, it remained recorded in the Limca Book of Records as “the most-watched mythological serial in the world”.

Interestingly, when the serial started airing in the country for the first time, people used to remain glued to the TV sets. Since there were fewer TVs at homes then, most of the people used to gather at some neighbour’s place to watch ‘Ramayan’.

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UN chief: World should follow South Korea on COVID-19 fight

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The United Nations chief said he hopes many countries in the world will follow the “remarkable example” of South Korea, which he said has been “extremely successful” in addressing the coronavirus pandemic and is planning to tackle climate change in its recovery from COVID-19.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pointed to Thursday’s announcement “that there was no new case in the Republic of Korea,” the country’s official name.

At the same time, he said, South Korea has presented plans for “a very ambitious green deal” for its recovery from the pandemic, including a ban on new coal-fired plants and a reduction of emissions from existing coal-fired plants.

“We hope that this example of the Republic of Korea will be followed by many other countries in the world,” Guterres said at a news conference.

The Koreas Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement early Thursday that four cases in the previous 24 hours, all imported, took the country’s total to 10,765, with 247 deaths and 9,059 recoveries.

South Korea’s caseload has been slowing in recent weeks after it recorded hundreds of new cases every day between late February and early March. It has subsequently relaxed some of its social distancing guidelines and is expected to ease up on more restrictions in the coming days if the downward trend continues.

South Korea had its first confirmed coronavirus case Jan. 20, the same day as the United States.

But unlike the US, officials there used a test focused on the same gene targets as the World Health Organization’s recommended test, according to the website of a test manufacturer. The government then quickly allowed private sector labs to produce it.

As a result, a nation with less than one-sixth the population of the United States mobilized to test more than 20,000 people a day. South Korea also instituted drive-through testing centers, allowing quicker identification of those who were infected but might not be displaying symptoms, thus slowing the emergence of new cases to a more manageable level.

By comparison, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided to develop its own test, focusing on three gene targets distinct from what the WHO used. The test was reportedly flawed and according to CDC data only 472 patients had been tested nationwide on Feb. 29, with just 22 cases confirmed.

The result was that while South Korea was able to manage its caseload, the rate of US infections soared.

Guterres said recovery from the pandemic “needs to go hand-in-hand with climate action,” just as South Korea is doing now.

He called on governments to ensure that spending to revitalize their economies gives priority to the creation of “green jobs” and use of low-carbon energy sources.

“Taxpayers’ money should not be used to subsidize fossil fuels or bail out polluting, carbon-intensive industries,” the U.N. chief said. “Now is the time to put a price on carbon and for polluters to pay for their pollution.”

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WHO should be ashamed of itself, it is like a PR agency for China: Trump

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US President Donald Trump Thursday said the World Health Organization should be “ashamed of” itself, as he likened it to a public relations agency for China.

The Trump Administration has launched a probe into the role of the WHO on coronavirus, and has temporarily suspended the US’ financial assistance to it.

“I think that the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves because they are like the public relations agency for China,” Trump told reporters in the East Room of the White House.

The United States, he reiterated, pays the WHO almost USD500 million a year and China pays them USD38 million a year. “Whether it’s a lot more, it doesn’t matter. They shouldn’t be making excuses when people make horrible mistakes, especially mistakes that are causing hundreds of thousands of people around the world to die.”

“I think the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves,? said the President.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged the WHO failed to deliver and misled the world on coronavirus. “The World Health Organization simply failed to respond in this case,” he told Scott Sands of The Scott Sands Show in an interview.

“With respect to the WHO, we know that they had one job, right? A single mission: To prevent the spread of a pandemic. We know that the leader of that organization travelled to China and then declined to declare it a pandemic until everyone in the world knew that was already true,” Pompeo told Fox news in another interview.

“It’s unfortunate, but this is not the first time there has been a virus go around the world from inside of China, and it’s not the first time the WHO has failed in its mission. We have an obligation to the American people to do our best to make sure that we fix that, that we prevent those things from ever happening again,” he said.

Meanwhile, several Republican lawmakers demanding a Congressional hearing alleged that the WHO parroted the Chinese regime’s “disinformation” on multiple occasions, including denying human-to-human transmission of the virus.

They alleged the WHO prolonged declaring COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, chastised efforts to restrict travel, and continued to praise China as a global leader in public health despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

“The WHO’s inaction and delay undoubtedly cost American lives. For these reasons, we commend the President’s decision to temporarily pause the WHO’s funding,” the lawmakers said.

Congressman James Comer, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on The Environment, said it would be an utter failure of the Committee to not investigate the WHO’s failures to address the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the American people.

Congressman Glenn Grothman, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Security, said that like many international organizations, it appears that the WHO has been “infected” by anti-Western bureaucrats.

“Had they stood up to the Chinese and their wet markets at some point in the last 10 years, I believe hundreds of thousands of people would be alive today,” he said.

The WHO deserves a thorough congressional investigation for its alleged mis-handling of the coronavirus response, and for accepting and promulgating a communist Chinese propaganda, said Congressman Chip Roy, a Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow