We could have stopped the pandemic, independent WHO experts say

We could have stopped the pandemic

According to Ipppr experts, the numerous delays and lack of communication between WHO, governments and citizens caused the pandemic to explode in February 2020

(Photo: Martin Sanchez / Unsplash) took seriously the dangerous spread of the coronavirus, to the point of not being able to do what was necessary to quickly prepare for a pandemic. This is the conclusion reached by the 13 members of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (Ipppr), an independent expert commission created last year by the World Health Organization (WHO), in the new report entitled Covid-19: Make it the Last Pandemic, the first to examine the global response to Covid-19.

In the new document, which focused on the measures to contain the coronavirus adopted in the very early stages of the pandemic by China, since WHO and governments, it is underlined that WHO has been too cautious in communicating the risks of Covid-19 and that the world has failed to take the pandemic threat seriously, to prepare and implement strategies capable of responding to the rapid spread of the coronavirus. "The combination of bad strategic choices, denial, and the lack of a coordinated system have created a toxic cocktail that has allowed the pandemic to turn into a catastrophe," the report reads.

As experts say, in fact, countries relied on WHO to make themselves safe, but did not endow it with the resources to do so. "For many years, WHO has received new tasks without sufficient authority or resources to fully assume them," the authors write. The report therefore proposes to give the WHO more power, independence and resources. For example, a top-to-bottom overhaul of the pandemic preparedness system is being proposed, including the creation of a new global health council similar to the United Nations Security Council and more resources and power for the World Health Organization. "Pandemics represent potential existential threats to humanity and must be elevated to the highest level," the authors write.

However, in the document, in addition to impeaching global leaders, the authors also target some decisions taken by the organization itself: for example, an international health emergency (Public Health Emergency of International Concern, Pheic) should probably have been declared immediately, i.e. from the first meeting of the WHO Emergency Committee, on January 22 2020, and not a week later, after a second meeting. Furthermore, the WHO could also have done more to warn of a possible transmission from human to human in the initial phase, even if it had not yet been demonstrated, immediately recommend the use of masks by adopting the principle of precaution, and, likewise, declare the pandemic much earlier (and not wait for March 2020) for governments to take the danger of the coronavirus more seriously.

"It is an assessment of the failure to respond to Covid-19 on all levels, from WHO down to the national level, ”says Lawrence Gostin, director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, to Science. However, the expert adds, the document remains vague on how to bring about the big changes that would need to be implemented and has missed an opportunity to denounce the bad behavior of countries, including China's early handling of the epidemic. "The independent commission had the opportunity to honestly identify the fault where it occurred. And he didn't ”, Gostin comments.


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