BREAKING NEWS – Washington, D.C. – An online petition calling for the resignation of the embattled leader of the World Health Organization neared 1 million signatures early Sunday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Ethiopian politician who has led the United Nations-backed health body as director-general since July 2017, has been under fire over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 100,000 people worldwide and sickened more than 1.7 million. Specifically, Tedros has been accused of allowing China to underreport the impact of the virus in Wuhan, the city believed to have been the point of origin for the deadly outbreak. The allegedly lowballed numbers from China have affected other nations’ ability to adequately respond to the outbreak, critics have asserted.

“I have done my best as far as informing the world about the virus,” he explained. “I have been accurate, and objective with no bias as news outlets have accused me of. But if people want me to resign, I’ll leave. At that point I will have to decide where I want to live, and it’ll be either at my newly built mansion in Beijing or Honk Kong.”