“No evidence of human-to-human transmission”
“No evidence of transmission outside of china”
“Countries that slow down international air travel are bad and wrong!”
“Everyone should go get on those cruise ships!”
That’s what the WHO has been up to the last month
A week ago WHO still praises China’s effective control measures, calls for world preparedness, not panic
https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1223288485311705088?s=20
Now — more than a month into an escalating global health crisis — there are questions about whether the WHO’s praise in the early weeks created a false sense of security that potentially spurred the virus’s spread.
Today we activated a @UN Crisis Management Team, to be led by @DrMikeRyan. to ensure @WHO focuses on the response to #COVID19 while other agencies bring their expertise on the social, economic and developmental implications of the outbreak. https://t.co/pfBqWXdXkJ
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 11, 2020
Travel restrictions were implemented with every major outbreak from SARS through to Ebola in West Africa. With the new coronavirus outbreak, countries around the world — from the US to Russia to Australia — are putting travel bans in place and closing their borders to China.
The mutual trust has been eroded where member states have ignored the recommendations from WHO.