On her Instagram Page, Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone announced that she would be interacting with the World Health Organisation Chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in order to spread awareness about mental health during the COVID-19 crisis. The decision of the actor didn’t go well with her fans.
Deepika Padukone has been one of the few influential voices in the entertainment industry who has spoken extensively on the importance of mental health after she was diagnosed with clinical depression in the year 2014. Since then, she has been quite vocal about it. She also launched her organization – The Live Love Laugh organization – to spread awareness about mental health.
The actress posted a story on her Instagram handle where she announced that she would be in conversation with the Director-General of the World Health Organisation. The session is focused on mental health during the times of the COVID-19 crisis. This has not gone well with her admirers as they came down heavily on the actress.
Tedros continues to face backlash
Ever since the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, the director-general Dr. Tedros has been a target of criticism. Initially, the international health body dismissed any kind of human to human transmission but it was around late January when China had already deep down the crisis, it announced the possibility of human to human transmission and alerted the world by declaring the outbreak as a pandemic.
Many including the United States President Donald Trump believes that the World Health Organisation is complacent of mishandling the pandemic given its allegiance to China. The Organisation has also downplayed the allegations of China possibly manufacturing the virus. This has led to a massive backlash as the United States stopped its funding to the organization last week. Dr. Tedros has responded to the allegations by calling them baseless and alerting the world again that only universal cooperation could stop the crisis.
Deepika has found herself in the middle of the controversy again. The last time, she was criticized for showing up at the Jawaharlal Nehru University to stand in solidarity with the students. Many believe that it has hampered the performance of her film Chappak at the box office.
Source: The Times of India
