Covid-19: WHO alerted global health emergency "at the right time"

Text by: Jérémie Lanche

Nearly 2.5 million patients, 180,000 dead, and an ideal culprit in the pandemic. At least in the eyes of Donald Trump. It's WHO. For weeks, the American president, himself accused of laxity, accuses the World Health Organization of having alerted too late on the Covid-19. Washington even cut its subsidies. From Geneva, the agency takes the blows at the same time as it manages the crisis. The WHO alerted the world "at the right time" repeats his boss.

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From our correspondent in Geneva,

No, the WHO was quick to launch the red alert, Tedros Ghebreyesus told a journalist. We did it on January 30. While there were only 82 cases outside of China and no deaths. Tedros Ghebreyesus believes that the rest of the world had enough time to prepare.

Asked about the financial blow by the United States, the director of emergency operations of WHO even suggests, a touch of annoyance. "  We have to deal with ... that's all, coward Mike Ryan. We have a very difficult job ahead of us. Like all countries in the world. I want my teams to focus on that and not where their payslips come from at the end of the month. A WHO member has just been killed on the ground, and another is in serious condition while transporting samples of Covid-19 to Burma. I don't think their families really care about our funding issues.  "

Tedros Ghebreyesus says he hopes Washington will reconsider its participation in the financing of the WHO. The consequences of the American withdrawal, if they are potentially dramatic for the WHO programs, will not be felt immediately. The WHO has completed more than 80% of its budget until 2021.

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