Covid-19: China and the WHO could have acted faster and stronger, according to an independent panel

In July, the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced the creation of the independent group to establish "an honest assessment" of the management of the crisis and "to draw lessons" for the future.

According to its conclusions, the WHO and the Channel could have acted faster and stronger after the first cases of Covid-19. 

More than a year after the first cases of Covid-19 in China, it emerges from an independent expert opinion that the World Health Organization (WHO) and Beijing could have acted faster and stronger to alert.

In its second report which will be presented on Tuesday at a meeting at the WHO, this panel of experts commissioned by the UN agency underlines that "it would have been possible to act faster on the basis of the first signs", and that containment measures should have been immediately implemented in all countries facing a probable case.

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And, they add, "it is clear that public health measures could have been applied more vigorously by Chinese local and national authorities in January" 2020.

Hesitations before declaring an international health emergency 

The slowness of the WHO in meeting its emergency committee at the start of the pandemic and its reluctance to declare an international health emergency, the highest level of alert for an epidemic, are also singled out.

"It is not clear why it did not meet before the third week of January, nor why it could not immediately agree on the declaration of a public health emergency of international concern", write -they.

Since the start of the health crisis at the end of 2019, the WHO has been strongly criticized in its response, notably delaying in recommending the wearing of a mask.

Above all, she was accused by the United States of having been extremely complacent with China, where the coronavirus appeared, and of having delayed declaring a state of global health emergency. 

Last May, WHO member states agreed on the principle of an independent investigation and in July, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the creation of the Independent Group to establish " an honest assessment "of the management of the crisis and" to draw lessons "for the future.

This panel is co-chaired by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

A term of "pandemic" used late

In just over a year, the pandemic has officially killed more than 2 million people, and just under a hundred million people have been infected.

These figures probably underestimate the real toll.

According to the report, it is clear in hindsight that the number of infections at the initial stage of the epidemic in all countries was greater than what was announced.

"A largely hidden epidemic has contributed to the global spread of the virus," argues the report.

"If the precautionary principle had been applied to the first unconfirmed indications of asymptomatic human-to-human transmission, earlier and stronger warnings could have been issued by WHO and national and local authorities regarding the risk of transmission ", notes the panel.

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As for the term "pandemic", "It was not until March 11 that the WHO used it," says the report.

This term does not correspond to a classification in the International Health Regulations, an international agreement on global health security that entered into force in 2007, but, explain the experts, "its use does indeed draw attention to the seriousness of a problem. health event ".

The WHO had been accused of procrastinating before calling the situation a pandemic.

And the qualification of a pandemic was followed by a tsunami of measures - including containments and traffic restrictions - in many countries.

In this regard, experts note that while trade and travel restrictions have had a negative impact on commodity flows, "they have most likely been helpful in curbing transmission" of the coronavirus.

Here too, the WHO recommendations, established long before the pandemic, recommended not to close the borders.