Since the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003, the WHO has had broader power “to investigate threats using non-state sources of information such as civil society groups.”
Apparently, WHO leadership did not feel that there was a good reason to use this power in the early stages of the Coronavirus pandemic.
An official WHO statement put out on January 8th says that: “Preliminary identification of a novel virus in a short period of time is a notable achievement and demonstrates China’s increased capacity to manage new outbreaks.”
The WHO also condemned countries who chose to enforce travel bans from China early on. The United States began restricting travel to the United States from the Hubei province in late January.
“… the WHO advises against the application of any travel or trade restrictions on China based on the information currently available,” the January 8th statement said.
Then, on January 18th, over a month after the first Coronavirus patient was discovered in Wuhan, the WHO tweeted that “[p]reliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China.”
It would come out later that the WHO also ignored communication from Taiwan in late December, which urged them to look into a rash of illnesses connected to individuals traveling from Wuhan to their country.
Why Should We Care About the WHO?
Even if one comes to the conclusion that there was (and potentially still is) some kind of collusion between the WHO and China regarding Coronavirus, the question can still be posed: Why should we care?
Putting aside political ideology and even economic and military threats coming from the superpower to the east, we can answer this question simply by considering the significant role that this supposedly-neutral organization plays in global health policy. The standards and recommendations it puts out to the world often form the basis for public health policies and programs. In the United States, these recommendations influence federal health policy. They also trickle down to the state, county, and local level. Ultimately, these recommendations affect hospital staff, doctors, and patients.
The WHO constitution defines the WHO as “the directing and coordinating authority on international health work.”
According to a report conducted by Yale University in 2009, “The World Health Organization (WHO) plays an essential role in the global governance of health and disease; due to its core global functions of establishing, monitoring and enforcing international norms and standards, and coordinating multiple actors toward common goals.”
When it comes to establishing needed perimeters by which to negotiate the tricky terrain of global health emergencies, the WHO’s power comes into sharp focus. For example, the WHO is the organization responsible for issuing Phase 1-6 warnings for local, regional, and global communicable disease outbreaks.
Without a WHO pandemic declaration, emergency services, supply production, and assessment worldwide cannot occur. The WHO officially announced that Coronavirus was a “pandemic” (Phase 6) in mid-March, nearly three months and half months after the very first Coronavirus case was discovered in Wuhan.
The WHO is also the body responsible for developing and implementing the coding systems, known as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), that hospitals and health centers all over the world use to determine course of treatment, insurance reimbursement thresholds, worldwide statistical information, and cause of death for patients.
PART 2 – Coming Soon…
Apparently, WHO leadership did not feel that there was a good reason to use this power in the early stages of the Coronavirus pandemic.
An official WHO statement put out on January 8th says that: “Preliminary identification of a novel virus in a short period of time is a notable achievement and demonstrates China’s increased capacity to manage new outbreaks.”
The WHO also condemned countries who chose to enforce travel bans from China early on. The United States began restricting travel to the United States from the Hubei province in late January.
“… the WHO advises against the application of any travel or trade restrictions on China based on the information currently available,” the January 8th statement said.
Then, on January 18th, over a month after the first Coronavirus patient was discovered in Wuhan, the WHO tweeted that “[p]reliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China.”
It would come out later that the WHO also ignored communication from Taiwan in late December, which urged them to look into a rash of illnesses connected to individuals traveling from Wuhan to their country.
Why Should We Care About the WHO?
Even if one comes to the conclusion that there was (and potentially still is) some kind of collusion between the WHO and China regarding Coronavirus, the question can still be posed: Why should we care?
Putting aside political ideology and even economic and military threats coming from the superpower to the east, we can answer this question simply by considering the significant role that this supposedly-neutral organization plays in global health policy. The standards and recommendations it puts out to the world often form the basis for public health policies and programs. In the United States, these recommendations influence federal health policy. They also trickle down to the state, county, and local level. Ultimately, these recommendations affect hospital staff, doctors, and patients.
The WHO constitution defines the WHO as “the directing and coordinating authority on international health work.”
According to a report conducted by Yale University in 2009, “The World Health Organization (WHO) plays an essential role in the global governance of health and disease; due to its core global functions of establishing, monitoring and enforcing international norms and standards, and coordinating multiple actors toward common goals.”
When it comes to establishing needed perimeters by which to negotiate the tricky terrain of global health emergencies, the WHO’s power comes into sharp focus. For example, the WHO is the organization responsible for issuing Phase 1-6 warnings for local, regional, and global communicable disease outbreaks.
Without a WHO pandemic declaration, emergency services, supply production, and assessment worldwide cannot occur. The WHO officially announced that Coronavirus was a “pandemic” (Phase 6) in mid-March, nearly three months and half months after the very first Coronavirus case was discovered in Wuhan.
The WHO is also the body responsible for developing and implementing the coding systems, known as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), that hospitals and health centers all over the world use to determine course of treatment, insurance reimbursement thresholds, worldwide statistical information, and cause of death for patients.
PART 2 – Coming Soon…