I
N MARCH, President Joe Biden asked his spooks how the covid-19 pandemic had started. Contradicting claims made last year by Donald Trump, who said the intelligence services had shown him very strong evidence on the matter, they told him that that they did not know. So on May 26th he asked them again, publicly this time, admonishing them to try harder and to report back in 90 days.
This is a direct rebuke to China’s secretive government. When experts convened by the World Health Organisation (
WHO) travelled to Wuhan, the city where covid-19 was first identified, in January and February this year their hosts refused to share crucial data. A senior Biden administration official said recently that he found those efforts to “undermine serious investigations” into the pandemic’s beginnings particularly troubling, and that they left “many more questions than answers”.
Published
26 May 2021 Speech by the Minister for Health and Social Affairs Lena Hallengren at the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly on 24 May - 1 June 2021. Check against delivery.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear Dr. Tedros.
I would like to thank the DG for his report and to align our statement with the statement made on behalf of the European Union.
It has been an overwhelming year for all of us. The pandemic has hit hard all over the world. So many lives have been lost, our health workforce has been stretched to the limit and health systems have been challenged like never before. Economies worldwide have been severely affected, and poverty and lack of access to education has become an even bigger problem than it was before.
COVID-19: WHO, world leaders warn against unequal vaccine distribution There is no diplomatic way to say it: a small group of countries that make and buy the majority of the world’s vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world. 3 min read
The 74th World Health Assembly (WHA) kicked off this week with a resounding warning from world leaders on the inherent consequences of an unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
Lack of access to vaccines in the developing world and low-income nations would not only increase health inequalities and insecurities but would hinder progress already made in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, they say.
Date Time
IOAC statement at Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly, 25 May 2021
1. Thank you, Mr Chairman. Honourable ministers, excellencies, heads of delegation, Director-General, and distinguished colleagues. On behalf of the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme – IOAC, I thank you for inviting us to present our report to this 74th session of the World Health Assembly. In presenting the report, we wish to pay tribute to all those working tirelessly across the world to bring the ongoing pandemic under control, and to those who have lost loved ones to COVID-19.
2. Since the inception of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme (the “WHE Programme”) in 2016, IOAC has provided oversight and advised the Director-General, under the terms of its mandate. For the purposes of this, its ninth report to the governing bodies, IOAC has aligned its oversight of the Organization’s response to COVID-19, with the terms of resolution WHA73.1. Th
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