'One World: Together At Home' celebrities slammed for supporting 'commie' WHO: 'We are not global citizens'
The star-studded 'One World: Together at Home' concert that featured prominent music personalities and political figures has sparked a major backlash for funding the World Health Organization (WHO), which has been accused of being "China-centric" and heavily criticized for mishandling early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Organized by the WHO and non-profit group Global Citizen, the two-hour televised event was broadcast on Saturday, April 18, across multiple stations in the United States as well as overseas.
Organizers said the event's corporate sponsors and other donors have already released $150 million in contributions towards the WHO's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
President Donald Trump halted all US funding for the WHO earlier this month — a sizeable chunk that accounts for about half of the UN agency's budget — calling for an investigation into its handling of the coronavirus outbreak and its questionable relationship with China.
However, that didn't stop the concert's line-up from gushing that the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was a 'superstar.'
Among those who joined the One World Concert were Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Jennifer Lopez, Stevie Wonder, British soccer star David Beckham, former US first ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Billie Eilish, Bill Gates and dozens of others.
But a backlash was imminent, especially from supporters of Trump and critics of the WHO from around the world.
"Yes, we need useless celebrities preaching to us how this isn't China's fault and how we should just all live as one nation," one Amazon review of the concert read.
"No thank you this is for the WHO," another tweeted. "NO THANK YOU."
"That one world together at home commie propaganda sponsored by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] WHO and this global citizen bull c**p is on at least 20 different stations," Charles Langworthy, a Republican running for Congress in Michigan, chimed in. "You can take your commie propaganda and shove it. THIS IS AMERICA! We are not global citizens we are AMERICAN CITIZENS!!" he added.
The controversial event was carried by almost all the major networks, including NBC, ABC, and CBS broadcast affiliates across the country, as well as MSNBC, NBC Sports, and other cable channels.
"If I could give No stars I would," another Amazon review read. "WHO lied! People died!! Let's not forgot this!!! While we're home given up our freedom and most of us without jobs these CELEBRITIES ask us to help raise money for the WHO?! Forget it!"
Ghebreyesus particularly drew backlash after delivering a video address during the concert.
"Disgrace, you have no ground to stand on after this episode. Failed to signal what was coming out of [China] failed to confirm a pandemic until it was too late, you were behind the curve permanently," one person tweeted.
The WHO is facing questions as to why they waited so long to declare the coronavirus a global health emergency, and why it has acknowledged and supported China's positions on a number of issues.
In fact, a WHO official praised China after it revised its death toll estimate upward on April 17. They saw it as "an attempt to leave no case undocumented."
On the other hand, America's coronavirus response coordinator Dr Deborah Birx explained how the revised Chinese numbers did not make sense.
"I put China on there so basically you can see how unrealistic this would be," she said at a recent White House coronavirus briefing while pointing to a chart that showed China's official case mortality rate at 0.33 per 100,000, which shows a magnitude below that of most countries.
WHO is also facing backlash for maintaining Beijing's argument that the virus was transmitted to humans at a wild animal "wet market" in Wuhan.
According to a report by the Daily Mail, the Wuhan Institute of Virology Lab is China's only bio-safety level four facility. It was known to be conducting experiments to identify coronaviruses in bats, in a bid to prove China's superiority in isolating potential disease threats. It is being said that the virus escaped the walls of this lab.
What's more? American scientists had already expressed strong concerns about the slipshod safety procedures at the lab, according to US diplomatic cables sent just two years ago.