Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Donald Trump orders US withdrawal from WHO on 20 January 2025, citing management of the COVID-19 pandemic, a perceived lack of sufficient reforms, political influence from certain member states and US financial contributions. The withdrawal becomes effective in January 2026 and creates substantial budgetary pressure on the organisation led by Tedros.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

Negotiation and subsequent adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement in May 2025 prompt an international campaign claiming that the instrument would allow WHO or Tedros to impose lockdowns, vaccines or other policies on states. Rebutting these allegations becomes a recurring feature of Tedros's public communications.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

Upon resigning as WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, Saima Wazed claims she faced harassment and retaliation after seeking an inquiry into Tedros's conduct. Her resignation comes after a WHO regional committee recommended ending her tenure, while she herself faced allegations of fraud and forgery in Bangladesh.

Attribution

Directly implicated

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration and other critics accuse Tedros and WHO of being too accommodating towards Beijing, excessively praising China's cooperation and failing to challenge incomplete information from China early enough. This becomes one of the main lines of international criticism during his first term.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

An independent commission commissioned by WHO documents numerous cases of sexual exploitation and abuse during the Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including by people associated with WHO. The affair triggers a crisis of accountability and oversight within the organisation led by Tedros, who publicly apologises and announces reforms.

State of the evidence

Documented

Ethiopia's army chief and other officials accuse Tedros, himself from Tigray and a former senior member of a TPLF-dominated government, of supporting Tigrayan forces, seeking diplomatic backing and even weapons. Ethiopian authorities also denounce his public positions on the humanitarian crisis during his campaign for a second term at WHO.

Attribution

Personally implicated

The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response concludes that the outbreak in Wuhan probably met the criteria for a public health emergency of international concern at the first Emergency Committee meeting on 22 January 2020, whereas Tedros did not declare one until 30 January. The Panel also describes February 2020 as a 'lost month' in the global response.

State of the evidence

Documented

At a press conference, Tedros says he has endured months of racist abuse and death threats and claims that some attacks originated from Taiwan, whose government he says failed to distance itself from them. Taipei categorically rejects the allegation and demands an apology.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Attribution

Directly implicated

The United States and Taiwan accuse WHO and Tedros of maintaining Taiwan's exclusion from the World Health Assembly under pressure from Beijing. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserts that Tedros had legal authority to invite Taiwan as an observer and chose not to exercise it.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

Anonymous emails and complaints from WHO staff contain allegations of racial discrimination, sexism, corruption and misuse of funds. The controversy concerns the organisation's management culture under Tedros rather than a precisely established personal act by him.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

Following the October 2016 Irreecha festival disaster, Tedros, then Ethiopia's Foreign Minister, publicly maintained that videos showed no shots had been fired and that police were unarmed. Human Rights Watch subsequently challenged the credibility of the official account and highlighted the absence of an independent, transparent investigation into the security forces' use of force.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

During the 2017 campaign for the leadership of WHO, Professor Lawrence Gostin accused Tedros of participating in the concealment of three possible cholera outbreaks in Ethiopia in 2006, 2009 and 2011, which were allegedly officially described as episodes of 'acute watery diarrhoea'. The allegation concerned health transparency and whether formally identifying cholera could have facilitated access to aid and vaccines.

Attribution

Political responsibility

A few months after becoming WHO Director-General, Tedros selects Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador for noncommunicable diseases in Africa. Governments, donors, medical associations and human rights organisations denounce the choice because of Mugabe's human rights record and the condition of Zimbabwe's healthcare system. Tedros withdraws the appointment days later.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated