“We appreciate the WHO’s role in global health protection; the relations between national health systems and the WHO have worked well during COVID. Hungary and Hungarian experts play an important role in the WHO’s work, and its presence in Budapest is strengthening,” Péter Szijjártó said in a post after the talks over the phone.

Szijjártó said that Ghebreyesus “has put my mind at ease regarding the fake news of the past weeks”.

“There is currently no threat of a global health crisis. The virus media outlets are discussing so keenly is well-known to WHO experts. It has appeared in a similar form several times earlier, especially during winter,” Szijjarto said.