U.S. assails WHO 'failure' in pandemic, saying it cost 'many lives'

FILE PHOTO: A logo is pictured outside a building of the World Health Organization (WHO) during an executive board meeting on update on the coronavirus outbreak, in Geneva, Switzerland, February 6, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday that the pandemic had "spun out of control" in great part due to a costly "failure" by the World Health Organization, and called for a more effective WHO.

"There was a failure by this organization to obtain the information that the world needed, and that failure cost many lives," U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told the WHO's two-day annual assembly being held online.