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McCaul calls for new leadership at WHO

Washington D.C. – Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX), Lead Republican of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement on the World Health Organization finally urging China to close wildlife or ‘wet’ markets as some of the markets have begun to reopen. A wildlife market in Wuhan, China is the suspected source of the COVID-19 outbreak. Congressman McCaul sent a letter to Director General Tedros earlier this month with a group of bipartisan lawmakers calling on the WHO to close these wildlife markets and ban the international trade of wildlife. He also recently called for WHO Director General Tedros to resign, citing concerns with many decisions he made, including repeating false statements by the Chinese Communist Party about how the virus spread. 

“I am pleased to see the World Health Organization answered my call to shut down the wildlife markets in China, however further steps are still needed to truly protect our global health. I strongly urge the Chinese Communist Party to be a good partner in the fight against COVID-19 to immediately enforce the shut down of all wildlife markets in the country.

“Despite this announcement, I am still concerned by the poor leadership Director General Tedros showed during this outbreak, including repeating what we now know to be false claims by the Chinese Communist Party on how the virus spread and continually praising their malicious actions that endangered lives around the globe. It’s time for new leadership at the WHO that the entire world can trust to be a honest leader during this pandemic.”

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