Having vacillated in his response to the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump has stoked a potentially explosive controversy by denouncing the World Health Organization in the midst of a gigantic public health crisis. However, the US President’s anger will scarcely be able to deflect the focus from the disaster that has very nearly brought the United States of America to its knees in an election year.

The short point must be that while there is much to assail the WHO, this isn’t the juncture for the Head of State to bare his angst, to the extent of threatening to freeze US funding for the health agency. Nor for that matter is this the moment to delve on the geopolitical construct, alleging that WHO was rather too focused on China and had issued “bad advice”.

The horrendous crisis affords no scope for subjective reflection, let alone a diplomatic joust. By coincidence or design, Mr Trump’s trenchant condemnation of WHO was articulated on Tuesday, by when the United States recorded no fewer than 14,100 deaths overall and 150,000 afflictions in New York state alone, and surpassed Spain for the maximum infections anywhere in the world.

Which is not to forget the alert sounded by the authorities that NY’s “death tally may understate the true toll”. “WHO really blew it,” President Trump said on Twitter. “Funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look.”

That threat has promptly been rejected by WHO’s Director- General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has cautioned the world and Mr Trump in particular that “we will have many more body bags”. He has even taken the opportunity to remind the White House of the basics, primarily that “WHO is guided by rules that the US helped write”.

It is no defence of WHO to acknowledge that it has done considerable work on Covid, having used the term, “pandemic”, in its reference to the scourge. Nor for that matter can it be disputed that it has shipped out equipment, helped countries with the training of health staff, and provided guidelines.

Having said that, it must also be fairly be stated that WHO on 14 January endorsed China’s contention that the virus did not transmit from humans to humans before conceding it was wrong nine days later. Similarly, it cannot be overlooked that as late as February 29, when several countries had suspended flights to and from China, WHO advised against travel or trade restrictions. Its performance in this crisis does raise questions, but these would have carried considerably greater weight had they come from anyone other than Mr Trump.

It will be open to question for sometime yet as to whether WHO is “China-centric”, as Mr Trump reckons. The world bears witness to what the medical fraternity describes as the most “acute phase of the pandemic”. Contretemps there might be in WHO’s functioning; but the President ought to have held his fire not the least because he has not quite covered himself with glory in America’s handling of the catastrophe.