From its founding in 1948 to the first decade of this century, the World Health Organization has been mainly known for defeating smallpox, fighting polio and tuberculosis, and providing support to countries that lack adequate health infrastructure. However, under the leadership of Margaret Chan, who was appointed in 2006, and her successor since 2017, Tedros Adhanum Gebresus, the organization has experienced numerous scandals and failures, including its mishandling of swine flu in 2009, and Ebola in 2014, and is also involved in scandals Expenses, then the coronavirus came.
China Bridge
Dr. Tidros was elected, as is well known in the political and health circles, who previously worked as Minister of Health in Ethiopia, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, to head the World Health Organization, with Chinese behind-the-scenes support, which reflects China's close relationship with Addis Ababa, which has become the bridge of China to Africa .
Although WHO officials have faced some criticism for allowing the organization to force the response of the coronavirus to actions dictated by Beijing, most of the anti-WHO outrage has focused on Tidros himself.
China was late to share important information, which could have saved many lives, for 10 days, after Chinese doctors completed the research. And when China announced that there were no new cases of coronavirus, between January 5 and January 17 - a period during which we now know that the outbreak in Wuhan was on the way; Based on information received by global health - from China, WHO confirmed to the world on January 12 that "there is no clear evidence of transmission from person to person." Indeed, a Chinese doctor has already concluded that the new disease "may be contagious" on 27 December.
Accusations of complicity
Was the World Health Organization complicit in Chinese deception, or was it just a coincidence?
Only the promised and “impartial and independent” investigation, commissioned by the WHO’s board of directors, to representatives of member states, can confirm this, but given China’s influence on the organization and the investigation’s reliance on evidence provided by Beijing, the investigation may not deliver much From the spotlight on this issue.
Much circumstantial evidence surrounding the WHO response to the emerging coronavirus indicates collusion, and it appears that this collusion came from Tedros himself.
Immediately after the first reports on December 31, that something was wrong, in Wuhan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, temperature checks began in the airport access halls, and Chinese hospitals were alerted to pay attention to acute respiratory diseases. Singapore followed the example of China on January 3. But on January 5, WHO reassured the world that such precautions were an overreaction. In a declaration that many countries will rely on to decide on their initial public health responses, the organization insisted that "there was no evidence of a large transmission of the virus from one person to another, and no infections were reported for health-care workers."
Reducing risk
Whether it was just a negligence on the part of the WHO in obtaining information, or that it knew about it, but did not want to arouse the Chinese’s discontent, by announcing it to the world, it would be up to the investigation to find out that, but the organization was already aware, at this point, Wuhan hospitals isolate patients, and Chinese doctors take full precautions against possible infections.
When the WHO team finally conducted field visits to Wuhan on January 20 and 21, they found that at least 16 health-care workers were infected with the emerging Corona virus. No cases were reported at the time, and one of them was the reporting physician, Li Wenliang, who later died of the disease.
Had Tidros been following the news on the BBC, he would have known early January 3 that the Chinese authorities had punished eight doctors for "publishing or sending false information on the Internet without verification". This presumed false information, as described by the BBC, included warnings on Chinese social media that the emerging pneumonia was similar to the outbreak of SARS in 2002-2003. In addition to describing the "new disease", the doctors ’punishment for exchanging information should have sounded the alarm at the World Health Organization about Chinese transparency. Instead, the BBC's report went unnoticed.
Late confession
On January 22, the Chinese Centers for Disease Control finally admitted that the new coronavirus is "very infectious", although it has once again kept the risk low by asserting that it is not as toxic as SARS. By that time, it had already spread from Hubei Province, to 12 other Chinese regions, as well as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. These were only confirmed cases reported to WHO. By January 24, this was also reported in Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Singapore and the United States, but on that same day, the organization reaffirmed its advice against "applying any restrictions to international traffic".
The strange thing is that although the World Health Organization recommended China “conduct an exit check in international airports and ports in the affected areas,” it did not recommend an entry check in other countries that receive passengers from China. It recommended temperature checks upon departure from China, but it remained strangely mysterious about entry checks, warning that it "may not reveal travelers who are embracing the disease, or travelers who do not exhibit symptoms of fever, while traveling, and it may require significant investments" . However, the WHO admitted that "most of the exported cases were detected by entry examination." In a reading between the lines, the organization's message was: “Do nothing. Let China deal with this. ”
Other countries have received this message. For example, Brendan Murphy, Australia's chief physician, explicitly referred to the advice of the World Health Organization, when he concluded that it was better not to "ban direct flights from China". In the United States, the Washington Post published an article criticizing the United States and other countries for undermining global health cooperation.
Much circumstantial evidence surrounding the WHO response to the emerging coronavirus indicates collusion, and this collusion appears to have come from Tedros himself.
Had Tidros been following the news on the BBC, he would have known early January 3 that the Chinese authorities had punished eight doctors for "publishing or sending false information on the Internet without verification". This presumed false information, as described by the BBC, included warnings on Chinese social media that the emerging pneumonia was similar to the outbreak of SARS in 2002-2003.
16
A health care worker was infected with "Corona", when the WHO team conducted field visits to Wuhan on January 20 and 21.
12
Another Chinese region where the epidemic has spread by January 22.