Medical experts from the U.S. working at the World Health Organization were sending information about the emerging coronavirus outbreak in China late last year directly to Trump administration officials, The Washington Post reported, as the president tries to shift the blame for his shambolic COVID-19 response to WHO .

More than a dozen U.S. experts, mostly a regular rotation of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers assigned to work at WHOs headquarters in Geneva, provided real-time updates to CDC and administration officials in the U.S. including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, according to the Post .

President Donald Trump , facing widespread criticism for his governments inadequate response to the pandemic, has attempted to shift blame , targeting the WHO and state governors. Last week, he announced the U.S. was freezing funding to WHO .

But Trumps complaint that WHOs early warnings about the coronavirus relied too heavily on China is undermined by the Posts revelation that American experts were relaying information directly to his administration.

An HHS spokesperson told the Post the Americans assigned to WHO were not decision-makers. The spokesperson also echoed Trump, saying that WHOs information was incorrect and relied too heavily on China.

China, where the coronavirus outbreak originated, has come under growing scrutiny for underreporting its COVID-19 cases and distorting aspects of its response. Trump, who often touts his relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, initially accepted Xis claims and praised the countrys handling of the outbreak.

In recent weeks, Trump has lashed out at the WHO, expressing anger that it did not praise his decision to partially restrict travel from China. The president has repeatedly held up the restriction as an example of his decisive action.

So much death has been caused by their mistakes, Trump said at a news briefing last week, claiming without evidence that WHOs reliance on information from China likely caused a twentyfold increase in cases worldwide.

On Saturday, Trump again assailed WHO, claiming were just finding more and more problems, without specifying any of them.