'Crimes against humanity' and a cholera coverup: WHO chief Tedros Adhanom's murky past does not inspire confidence
If you've been following the news about the COVID-19 pandemic closely, you have undoubtedly come across the name of Tedros Adhanom, who, in his role as the Director-General of the World Health Organization, has been the face of the UN's response to the outbreak.
While Adhanom was very much an unknown entity previously, he has come to prominence because of not just what many perceive as a bungled and delayed response to the pandemic, but also favoritism towards China, which, for the longest time, was its epicenter.
Many have claimed that he has too close a relationship with the government of China, allegations that he has strenuously denied but which seemingly hold credence when you dissect his recent actions under a microscope.
For one, he met with Chinese leaders including foreign minister Wang Yi and paramount leader Xi Jinping about COVID-19 in January 2020 and praised the country's leadership despite reports that they had tried to cover up human-to-human transmissions and had silenced doctors who had tried to blow the whistle about its dangers.
In fact, he hailed China for its containment measures and described them as a "new standard for outbreak control," despite a widespread effort being made in the country to suppress crucial information.
Less than a month later, just as the pandemic was beginning to spread to other countries, Adhanom insisted there was no need for the world to take measures that "unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade" such as worldwide travel restrictions. He has also been criticized for the delay in declaring COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern.
More recently, he said he had received death threats and racist remarks, which he attributed to Taiwan, whose relationship with China has always been icy. He said he believed the foreign ministry of Taiwan knew about the racist insults and did not proactively act to address them and even endorsed them.
The allegations were vehemently denied by the Taiwanese government, which demanded an apology from Adhanom for what it deemed were "unnecessary and slanderous comments."
None of these paint him in a flattering light and a look into his past reveals that these controversies are by no means new to the 55-year-old.
When he was elected Director-General in 2017, Adhanom, an Ethiopian, became the first non-physician and African ever to hold the prestigious position. But he had been selected as the continent's sole candidate in a murky process that did not consider qualified alternatives like Michel Sidibé of Mali and Awa Marie Coll-Seck of Senegal.
His candidacy had been vigorously opposed by several Ethiopian parties and groups due to his career in the violent Communist Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which provided millions of dollars in financial support for Tedros's campaign.
One of the most vocal opponents was the Amhara Professionals Union (APU), a non-profit advocacy group that represented the Amharas, one of the most populous ethnic groups in the country.
The APU accused him of committing crimes against humanity in his role as Minister of Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and Minister of Foreign Affairs, naming, in particular, coverups of three possible cholera epidemics in the country in 2006, 2009, and 2011.
The outbreaks were allegedly wrongly labeled as "acute watery diarrhea" — a symptom of Cholera — in an attempt to play down their significance and "juke the numbers," so to speak.
The APU said Adhanom did so "to conceal the impact a public admission of Cholera epidemic might have on Tourism and image of his Party rather than protecting the international community and attempting to reach out to the affected areas. Such a sad error due to lack of judgment resulted in a nationwide epidemic."
They also said he had treated citizens in Ethiopia, namely Amharas, differently based on their ethnicity and that he disfavored the "Amhara Regional State” through "poor health care."
"Disproportionately high mortality coupled with selective application of contraceptives use has led to a selective reduction of the growth rate of the Amhara people," the group argued. "Such disparities were created and gaps increased across all measures of health in his leadership tenure.
"Of particular importance is the unexplained 2.5 million decrease in the Amhara population under his healthcare leadership. The Amharas were victimized and punished due to their ethnic background."
That effort to stop his election ultimately failed, and just a few months after taking office, Adhanom announced he had chosen Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe — who had overseen the genocide of 20,000 Ndebele civilians — to serve as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador to help tackle non-communicable diseases for Africa.
He praised Zimbabwe as "a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the center of its policies to provide health care to all," when, in reality, WHO members pointed out that its healthcare system had gone backward under Mugabe.
Many felt he had only done so as a quid pro quo to Mugabe, as the latter had been the chair of the African Union when he was nominated for the Director-General position. The backlash that followed earned Adhanom the nickname of 'Dictator-General' in some quarters and saw him eventually rescind Mugabe's goodwill ambassador role.
Adhanom's hands are full handling the COVID-19 pandemic these days, and with his recent rebuke of French doctors who had suggested that Africa should be a "testing ground" for any potential vaccine, maybe there is some hope yet.