March 16
"You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don't know who is infected," Tedros said at a briefing in Geneva. He added, "We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test. Test every suspected case."
At a press briefing, Trump issued orders to control the spread of the virus in the U.S.: "My administration is recommending that all Americans, including the young and healthy, work to engage in schooling from home when possible. Avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people. Avoid discretionary travel. And avoid eating and drinking at bars, restaurants and public food courts. If everyone makes this change or these critical changes and sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation and we will defeat the virus. And we're going to have a big celebration all together. With several weeks of focused action, we can turn the corner and turn it quickly."
March 17
Trump told reporters: "This is a pandemic. ... I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."
Feb. 13
In an interview with Geraldo Rivera, Trump characterized the threat of the virus in the U.S. by saying: "In our country, we only have, basically, 12 cases, and most of those people are recovering and some cases fully recovered. So it's actually less."
April 7
Trump criticized the WHO for mishandling the pandemic. "The WHO really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China-centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately, I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?"
April 8
"Please don't politicize this virus," Tedros said in a briefing in Geneva after he was asked about Trump's remarks the day before. He later urged political leaders to "please quarantine politicizing COVID."
April 14
"Today I am instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus," Trump said in a briefing at the White House.
Feb. 24
In a tweet, Trump wrote, "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!"
April 15
"We regret the decision of the president of the United States to order a halt in funding to the World Health Organization," said Tedros at a news conference.
Responding to the U.S. accusations, Ryan of the WHO said, "In the first weeks of January, the WHO was very, very clear."
"We alerted the world on January the 5th," Ryan said. "Systems around the world, including the U.S., began to activate their incident management systems on January the 6th. And through the next number of weeks, we've produced multiple updates to countries, including briefing multiple governments, multiple scientists around the world, on the developing situation ? and that is what it was, a developing situation."
In an interview with NPR that will air on April 16, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, stated: "[The World Health Organization] was not accurate. Had it been accurate, it would have slowed the virus and saved thousands of lives."