THE WHO HAS LET US ALL DOWN

With this historical context in mind, let’s re-examine the handling of the coronavirus pandemic byTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO. He praised the Chinese Communist party’s handling of the situation, even as doctors like Li Wenliang were being arrested for warning about the epidemic and as people were being welded in quarantine camps through draconian measures. He also opposed the travel restrictions placed on China, declaring them to be discriminatory. He delayed declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, and finally yielded when it had infected over 116 countries.

Countries often have a pandemic response plan that is implemented once a pandemic is declared. But the WHO was left arguing over the semantics of its definition, which delayed these plans being put into action. A prime example of the WHO’s ineptitude was when CNN decided to declare the coronavirus a pandemic on March 9, two days before the WHO.