The Failures of the World Health Organization and China to stop Coronavirus Pandemic

The World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and praised his government for containing Coronavirus outbreak in China despite the fact that Coronavirus was quietly spreading in China during the early stages of its breakout. In a tweet WHO said “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus.” Chinese authorities received credible information in Wuhan China in December suggesting that Coronavirus could be passed on through human to human transmission, but they failed to act on such information at that stage.

Records show that WHO received the Coronavirus alert information from Chinese authorities in December 2019 but reported it to the world in January 2020. Many countries have criticized the WHO leadership for its failure to alert the world sooner than it did. The organization seem to align itself with China and stands ready to embrace what China says as demonstrated in this Coronavirus debacle. The WHO Leaders also came to the defense of China when Trump imposed travel ban against China. What the United States does with regard to protecting its citizens from a deadly virus which originated from Wuhan China is outside the mandate of World Health Organization.

Many other criticisms leveled at the WHO is that the agency failed to act on the initial whistleblower information. Some of these whistleblowers were medical doctor in Wuhan China during the month of December 2019. The former Canadian Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler made an accusation along with some conservative Canadian MPs and said the words of the World Health Organization matched the Chinese official statements which downplayed the infectiousness nature of Coronavirus and the possibility to be spread across the world.

Despite these early Chinese failures to contain Coronavirus outbreak, the Director General of WHO has continued to shower praises on Beijing for its handling of the Coronavirus outbreak. "A senior World Health Organization expert has broken ranks and accused China of not reporting coronavirus cases fast enough in the early stages of the outbreak". According to John Mackenzie, a member of the World Health Organization’s emergency committee, China’s response was reprehensible. He added that as new coronavirus disease spreads in Wuhan, local Chinese officials were busy discussing local political issues.

One good example to illustrate the point that Chinese authorities know more about Coronavirus than they were telling the world was the case of Chinese Doctor Li Wenliang who was censured for trying to alert other Chinese Doctors about the new coronavirus disease. Li Wenliang had contracted the virus and later died of coronavirus himself at a very young age of 33. Many people in China now claim him as a martyr.

Can Donald Trump pull US out of World Health Organization?

Although Donald Trump has often threatened to withdraw the US from membership in the World Health Organization from the perspective of law, Trump has not initiated any steps to withdraw the U.S from membership in WHO. He just put in a temporary freeze and wants the WHO to commit to reforms by June 18, or he will suspend US membership from the world Health body.

But withdrawing from the World Health Organization is not easy, for instance the United States must satisfy two conditions before leaving the world body. It must pay up its full financial obligation to the WHO for current year, and it must give one year written consent to the WHO of its intension to withdraw. But US election comes up in about 5 months, so if Trump sends a written intent for U.S to withdraw now, the earliest the US could exercise such option will be around July 2021, assuming Donald Trump wins re-election. If Joe Biden wins in November and becomes the next US president he can easily renounce the Trump’s withdrawal notice keeping the US membership in the WHO intact.

Reforms Needed at the World Health Organization

The World Health Organization undoubtedly needs a major reform. It is difficult to understand why an organization with great medical doctors and scientists, that spends about $2 Billion each year, could not stop a virus like Coronavirus from spreading across the world. Currently more than 6.1 million people have been infected with about 376,000 deaths worldwide. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus the Director-General of World Health Organization should resign from leadership of the agency.

Serious errors were made by the WHO, since the organization’s work centers on helping members maintain good health, the organization must stay away from politics at all times. A new WHO body must be empowered to contain virus and other communicable disease breakouts anywhere in the world as soon as the disease breaks out. But the cooperation from member states is needed in reporting disease breakouts with immediate effect.

One Chinese government official said “The WHO at that time didn’t do their job”. As much as the Chinese authorities continue to be in denial, they should know that the world will never forget the decimation caused by a virus born in China.