The head of the World Health Organisation gave a strident defence of his agency’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday, in response to US President Donald Trump’s criticism and suggestions that Washington could review its funding for the agency.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for unity and a halt to“politicisation” of the global health crisis, specifically urging China and the US to show “honest leadership”.

Tedros said the WHO had “kept the world informed about the latest data, information and evidence” and noted that Thursday would mark 100 days since China first notified the organisation of cases of “pneumonia with unknown cause” on December 31.

Tedros, a former foreign minister of Ethiopia, rejected Trump’s suggestion that the WHO was “China-centric”, saying: “We are close to every nation, we are colour-blind.”

Tedros said he expected US funding to continue with traditional bipartisan support.

Trump and his administration repeated its criticism, on Wednesday. Secretary of state Mike Pompeo said Washington was re-evaluating US funding to the body.

Racial slurs

Tedros said on Wednesday that he had been targeted by racist comments and death threats that originated in Taiwan. Tedros singled out the Taiwanese government, which has been frozen out of the WHO, when he said that the comments had originated in that country.