by Hans Izaak Kriek*
President Trump looks into the possibility to halt the United States funding of the World Health Organization for not having informed the world community on time about the threat of the coronavirus threat. He slammed the WHO over coronavirus and he’s not alone.
The president unleashed a tirade against the World Health Organization on Tuesday, accusing it of acting too slowly to sound the alarm about the coronavirus. It was not the first time in this pandemic that the global health body has faced such criticism.
Government officials, health experts and analysts have in recent weeks raised concerns about how the organization has responded to the outbreak.
In Japan, Taro Aso, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, recently noted that some people have started referring to the World Health Organization as the ‘Chinese Health Organization’ because of what he described as its close ties to Beijing. Taiwanese officials say the WHO ignored its early warnings about the virus because China refuses to allow Taiwan, a self-governing island it claims as its territory, to become a member.
Critics say the WHO has been too trusting of the Chinese government, which initially tried to conceal the outbreak in Wuhan. Others have faulted the organization and its leader, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for moving too slowly in declaring a global health emergency.
The WHO, a United Nations agency, has defended its response, saying on Wednesday that it alerted the world to the threat posed by the virus in a timely manner and that it was “committed to ensuring all member states are able to respond effectively to this pandemic.”
The agency’s defenders say that its powers over any individual government are limited, and that it has done the best it can in dealing with a public health threat with few precedents in history.
There will be time later to assess successes and failings, “this virus and its shattering consequences,” the United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said Wednesday in a statement praising the WHO as “absolutely critical” to vanquishing Covid-19.
Here’s why the organization is coming under attack.
The WHO has not pushed China on early missteps.
When cases of a mysterious viral pneumonia first appeared in Wuhan in December, Chinese health officials silenced whistle-blowers and repeatedly played down the severity of the outbreak.
Even as late as mid-January, as the virus spread beyond China’s borders, Chinese officials described it as “preventable and controllable” and said there was no evidence it could be transmitted between humans on a broad scale.
The WHO endorsed the government’s claims, saying in mid-January, for example, that human-to-human transmission had not been proven.
Critics say the organization’s repeated deference to Beijing exacerbated the spread of the disease. A group of international experts was not allowed to visit Wuhan until mid-February.
“They could have been more forceful, especially in the initial stages in the crisis when there was a cover-up and there was inaction,” said Yanzhong Huang, a global health expert specializing in China at Seton Hall University.
Mr. Huang noted that during the SARS epidemic in 2002 and 2003, which killed more than 700 people worldwide, the WHO pushed the Chinese government to be more transparent by publicly criticizing it for trying to conceal the outbreak.
At one point during the SARS epidemic, officials at hospitals in Beijing forced SARS patients into ambulances and drove them around to avoid their being seen by a visiting delegation of WHO experts, according to reports at the time.
WHO officials were slow to declare a public health emergency, critics say.
Even as the virus spread to more than half a dozen countries and forced China to place parts of Hubei Province under lockdown in late January, the WHO was reluctant to declare it a global health emergency.
WHO officials said at the time that a committee that discussed the epidemic was divided on the question of whether to call it an emergency, but concluded that it was too early. One official added that they weighed the impact such a declaration might have on the people of China.
After the United States announced a ban on most foreign citizens who had recently visited China, the WHO again seemed to show deference to Chinese officials, saying that travel restrictions were unnecessary. The group officially called the spread of the coronavirus a pandemic on March 11.
Some experts argue that the institution’s delay in making such declarations deprived other countries of valuable time to prepare hospitals for an influx of patients.
“It reinforced the reluctance to take early strong measures before the catastrophe had actually landed on other shores,” said Francois Godement, senior adviser for Asia at Institute Montaigne, a nonprofit group in Paris. “The WHO’s tardiness or reluctance to call out the problem in full helped those who wanted to delay difficult decisions."
The WHO defended its actions, saying on Wednesday that it had “alerted member states to the significant risks and consequences of Covid-19 and provided them with a continuous flow of information” ever since Chinese officials first reported the outbreak on Dec. 31.
Mr. Guterres of the United Nations said, “It is possible that the same facts have had different readings by different entities.” He added in his statement, “Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe, and how all those involved reacted to the crisis.”
President Trump said in a tweet: ”The WHO really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately, I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?”
The threat by the US President to stop funding the WHO does not aim to abolish the organization, but to replace the entire management team, which seems to work in the interests of the Communist Party of China rather than the health interests of the world community.
Seemingly, the WHO did not declare the pandemic on time in order to help China diffuse the international public’s anger about its responsibilities. The infections in Wuhan were reportedly noticed by the Chinese authorities as early as last September and if the WHO would have informed the world community on time, the human catastrophe that followed would have been avoided.
The explanation for the criminal behavior of WHO lies squarely with Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, who was elected Director-General of the organization with the support of Red China. He is from Ethiopia, China’ number one satellite in the world, and served as Addis Ababa’s Minister of Health and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
A newspaper, New Europe has reported extensively twice before about the criminal responsibilities of the WHO, on March 18 and on March 20, suggesting that the head of the organization, and his close associates, should be referred to the International Court of Justice at The Hague for crimes against humanity.
*International political commentator for European Business Review and editor-in-chief at Kriek Media International
By: N. Peter Kramer
