WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been targeted on Chinese social media platforms after he questioned the sustainability of the country's zero-Covid policy.
The WHO chief's comment on Weibo and WeChat was censored as he expressed rare disagreement with Beijing's policies, CNN reported. The image containing his face has been scrubbed from Chinese social media and the 'Tedros' hashtag is also banned.
This comes after Tedros on Tuesday had said that China's "zero-COVID" strategy isn't sustainable given the virus' ever-evolving nature.
Speaking at a media briefing, the WHO chief had said, "When we talk about the zero-COVID strategy, we don't think that it's sustainable, considering the behaviour of the virus now and what we anticipate in the future."
China's strict COVID measures have left Shanghai's 25 million people trapped in their homes for weeks as the country combats the worst outbreak since the pandemic began.
The Shanghai lockdown has caused outrage and protest. In the garb of tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using the Shanghai lockdown to implement the most draconian of its surveillance and authoritarian systems, the kinds of which were only seen in far-off provinces like Xinjiang till now.
Tedros said WHO officials have spoken to Chinese experts about the policy. The extreme measures have saved lives, but they've also led to food shortages, a lack of workers, and movement restrictions.
"We have discussed this issue with Chinese experts and we indicated that the approach will not be sustainable ... I think a shift would be very important," said the WHO chief.
He further stated that transiting to another strategy will be very important.
"I think a shift will be very important. ... Now we know a lot about the virus and we have better tools, so these are the additional opportunities that we have to make a shift," said Tedros.
( With inputs from ANI )
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