'Love': Why a Cryptic Tweet by WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Has Riled up Social Media

"Love". "Unity". "Solidarity".

In the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic, which had already claimed over 1,34,000 deaths worldwide, many from Asian countries have faced a spike in cases of racism. In India, people from the northeastern states of the country have also been facing hate. And of course, there is  Islamophobia too.

The virus, which originated from a seafood market in Wuhan in China, has gripped the world and sent citizens in a lockdown. However, the virus also brought out the worst in human beings.

In Delhi, a girl from north-east India was spat on as the man yelled 'Corona.' Unfortunately, this is not just limited to India or Indians and if you thought, you were safe off the streets, think again. Indians, stuck in lockdown, recently hunted down Chinese food bloggers on the Internet and left despicable comments, in mostly their own languages.

To top it all, US President Donald Trump, in March, started referring to the virus as "China virus". The tweet exists till date so does the hate and xenophobia among us all.

Read: Muslims Spitting on Food, Hiding in Mosques to Spread Coronavirus? Beware of These 8 Fake News Stories

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has become the face in the fight against coronavirus, recently posted a series of tweets, perhaps urging everyone to come together and keep the deadly Covid-19 at bay.

Notably, his tweets came after Trump decided to suspend funding for the WHO and hinted at stepping up its monetary contribution to the UN health agency. The Trump administration has accused WHO of taking side with China in the coronavirus outbreak that has brought America's economy to a standstill.

On Wednesday, Tedros quoted his press conference and wrote: "#COVID19 doesn't discriminate between: -rich & poor or large & small nations -nationalities, ethnicities or ideologies Neither do we. This is a time for all of us to be united in our common struggle against a common threat – a dangerous enemy."

His tweet, urging for "love", got attention plenty and Twitterati came down hard upon the WHO director and accused him for being "money hungry" and favouring China in the pandemic.

In fact, a tweet by WHO dated 14 Jan was pulled up which read, "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China"