WHO denies complacency towards China.
Geneva, Switzerland:
The World Health Organization has updated its account of the early stages of the COVID crisis to indicate that it has been alerted by its own office in China, and not by China itself, of the first cases of pneumonia. in Wuhan.
The UN health agency has been accused by US President Donald Trump of failing to provide the information necessary to stem the pandemic and of being complacent to Beijing, accusations it denies.
On April 9, WHO released an initial schedule of communications, partly in response to criticism for its rapid response to the epidemic that has claimed the lives of more than 521,000 people worldwide.
In this chronology, the WHO only indicated that the municipal health commission of Wuhan in Hubei province had reported on December 31st cases of pneumonia. The United Nations health agency, however, did not specify who notified it.
WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on April 20 that the first report came from China, without specifying whether the report was sent by the Chinese authorities or another source.
But a new chronology, published this week by the Geneva institution, offers a more detailed version of the events.
He said it was the WHO office in China that notified his regional contact point on December 31 of a case of “viral pneumonia” after finding a statement for the media on a website of the commission Wuhan health on the matter.
On the same day, the WHO epidemic information service collected another report sent by the international epidemiological surveillance network ProMed – based in the United States – on the same group of cases of pneumonia of unknown causes in Wuhan.
WHO then asked the Chinese authorities twice, on January 1 and January 2, for information on these cases, which it provided on January 3.
WHO emergency director Michael Ryan said at a press conference on Friday that countries have 24 to 48 hours to officially verify an event and provide the agency with additional information on the cause or cause of an event.
Ryan added that Chinese authorities immediately contacted WHO as soon as the agency asked to verify the report.
President Donald Trump has announced that his country, the main financial contributor to the WHO, will cut its ties with the institution, which he accuses of being too close to China and of having mismanaged the pandemic.
WHO denies complacency towards China.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
