China News Service, March 10th. According to the official Weibo news of the World Health Organization, the World Health Organization website released a clarification message, saying that it should delete "people should not use traditional herbal medicines" in the corresponding guidelines. The reason is that the previous language was too broad, and it was not considered that many people would use traditional herbal medicines to alleviate the mildness caused by 2019 coronavirus disease.
The full text is as follows:
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been committed to providing the public with information on how to identify, prevent and manage the disease, and to answer questions of public concern. These are posted on the WHO website in six official United Nations languages. WHO regional and country offices have also translated these into local languages for promotion.
As the scientific evidence related to the outbreak continues to be updated, and the public is constantly asking new questions, WHO regularly updates the corresponding guidelines on various platforms, including the "Frequently Asked Questions" column on social media and WHO's official website.
On the "Frequently Asked Questions" page, we listed some things that the public should and should not do. Under the question "What should I not do?" An earlier version suggested that people should not use traditional herbal medicines.
Image source: WHO's official Weibo
The decision to remove this content was made at an editorial meeting of the News and Risk Communication Group at WHO headquarters on 4 March. The reason for this is that the previous language was too broad and did not take into account that many people would use traditional herbal medicines to relieve the mildness caused by 2019 coronavirus disease.
The above languages were removed from the Chinese page on March 6, the English page on the 7th, and the remaining official language pages on the 8th. The reason all pages are not updated synchronously is because our team needs time to edit each page.