Brazil threatens to quit WHO over 'ideological bias'

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has threatened to pull out of the WHO over "ideological bias," and criticized the World Health Organization for suspending clinical trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 -- a decision it reversed this week -- and threatened to follow in Trump's footsteps by quitting.

Latin America is battered by the epidemic, especially Brazil which now has the world's third-highest number of virus deaths. 

"I'm telling you right now, the United States left the WHO, and we're studying that, in the future. Either the WHO works without ideological bias, or we leave, too," the far-right leader told journalists.

Dubbed the "Tropical Trump," Bolsonaro has followed the US president in his handling of the pandemic, downplaying its severity, attacking stay-at-home measures and touting the purported effects of hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19.

The WHO had suspended trials of hydroxychloroquine after major studies raised concerns about its safety and effectiveness -- irking Trump, who even took the drug himself as a preventive measure.