China should have acted quicker says The WHO Pandemic Response Probe Team.
Key sentence:
- Throughout the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, Covid-19 was first identified before slipping beyond China’s boundaries to wreak international havoc.
- It is not obvious why the panel did not meet before the third week of January.
- The WHO was particularly hotly attacked by outgoing US President 34 Donald Trump.
A group reviewing the global response had concluded that the World Health Organization, as well as Beijing, should have operated quicker when Covid-19 first surfaced in China.
In the second report of Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response:
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response reported in its latest report that an examination of the “chronology of the initial stage of the virus suggests that there was the possibility for early signs to have been focused on more quickly.”
Throughout the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, Covid-19 was first identified before slipping beyond China’s boundaries to wreak international havoc, destroying more than two million people as well as destroying economies.
The panel also criticized WHO for dragging its feet:
The panel noticed in its study that it was “clear” that “public health measures might have been implemented more strongly by local as well as national health authorities in China during January.”
The panel also blamed WHO for delaying its feet at the beginning of the crisis, pointing out that this is emergency commission had not been convened by the UN health agency before 22 January 2020.
And the committee did not consent, until a week later, to declare the novel coronavirus epidemic a Public Health Emergency of International Significance (PHEIC)—its strongest level of warning.
As the report stated:
It is not obvious why the panel did not meet before the third week of January, neither is it clear why the (PHEIC) declaration could not be agreed upon… when it was first summoned,’ says the report.
The WHO had faced strong criticism about its response since before the start of the outbreak with reports that it dragged its feet on announcing a pandemic and suggesting face masks.
Outgoing US President Donald Trump also Criticized WHO:
The WHO was particularly hotly attacked by outgoing US President 34 Donald Trump, who blamed the organization for screwing up the pandemic’s handling as well as being a “puppet of China”.
Against this context, last May, WHO member states accepted a resolution calling for an ‘impartial, independent as well as systematic assessment… to examine the knowledge gained and lessons learned from the pandemic’s WHO-coordinated international health responses.’
