An "independent" investigation into the response to the pandemic by the UN and its member states will be launched "as soon as possible at the appropriate time," announced the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday. .
"I will launch an independent assessment as soon as possible at the appropriate time to review experiences and lessons learned and make recommendations for improving national and global pandemic preparedness and response," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in front of the 194 member countries of the WHO gathered virtually this Monday for its annual meeting.
A crisis that "highlighted geopolitical divisions"
WHO, one of the main missions of which is to coordinate health emergencies, is accused by the United States of having neglected an early warning from Taiwan on the seriousness of the coronavirus which appeared in China at the end of December - which denies the UN agency. Washington, which accuses Beijing of having concealed the scale of the epidemic, believes that the WHO has "planted" itself in the management of the pandemic by aligning itself with the Chinese position. He immediately suspended the American contribution to the WHO.
“From day one, WHO has supported countries in these dark hours. The WHO quickly sounded the alarm and we sounded it often, replied Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday, throwing controversy over the response to the pandemic on pre-existing diplomatic tensions. It "bluntly highlighted the geopolitical divisions," he said, without giving further details. The World Health Assembly is expected to approve by consensus a resolution brought by the European Union asking to launch “as soon as possible (…) an evaluation process” to examine the international health response and the measures taken by WHO .
"The world doesn't need another plan"
The head of the WHO said he was in favor of this initiative provided that it "understands the totality of the response by all the actors, in good faith". And he stressed that if lessons can be learned from this pandemic, the international community must preserve the WHO, which has proven effective in the past in eradicating infectious diseases. “The world does not need another plan, another system, another mechanism, another committee or another organization. It needs to strengthen, implement and fund the systems and organizations it has - including WHO, ”he warned.
Several heads of state and government intervening by videoconference supported WHO. And the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has even castigated the countries "who have ignored" his recommendations to systematically test, before isolating and treating, to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. The world is now paying a "high price" for the divergent strategies of states to respond to the crisis, according to Antonio Guterres.
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