To control the initial coronavirus outbreak in China, the Chinese officials could have applied for public health measures more vehemently in January, said an independent panel on Monday, and also criticized the WHO for not declaring an international emergency until January 30.
Former New Zealand PM Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, called for reforms to the UN agency, in reviewing the global handling of the pandemic led by a team of experts.
.@TheIndPanel on Pandemic Preparedness & Response briefs WHO Executive Board on its 2nd progress report tomorrow. Senior @devex reporter @JennyLeiRavelo summarises key points in the report in the thread below. @sudhvir @minhealthnz @PeterGluckman https://t.co/McPrTvUA5n
— Helen Clark (@HelenClarkNZ) January 18, 2021
After the WHO’s emergency expert Mike Ryan said that global virus deaths were expected to top 100,000 per week “very soon”, their interim reports were published within hours.
However, the report said referring to the preliminary outbreak in Wuhan that, “What is clear to the panel is that public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January.”
It added, as the evidence of human-to-human transmission emerged, “this signal was ignored in far too many countries”
The report further questioned the WHO, of why the WHO’s emergency committee did not meet until the third week of January and why they did not declare an international emergency on January 30 that was their second meeting.
The report said, “It was not until 11 March that WHO used the term.” “The pandemic alert system is not fit for purpose”, it said. “The WHO has been underpowered to do the job.”
It was said that it would provide recommendations in a final report to health ministers in May and the report also called for a “global reset”.
The leaked footages taken by two journalists of China showed how Chinese government failed to provide the necessary medical resources and attempts to censor journalists trying to report on the outbreak.
