World leaders could have stopped Covid-19 pandemic but failed - scathing WHO-commissioned report May 12, 2021, 02:14 PM
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FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
A proper global response could have averted the Covid-19 pandemic, a WHO-backed report found.
A fundamental transformation is needed to prevent a future pandemic, its authors said.
It was critical of both national leaders and the WHO itself, which was slow to declare an emergency.
The Covid-19 pandemic, and most of its death and devastation, could have been averted by a proper global response, a WHO-backed panel said on Thursday.
The report, by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, said that the resources and know-how to control the coronavirus existed all along, but world leaders failed to use them properly.
Boris Johnson has said he intends to lift the work from home order on June 21.
Under England’s coronavirus lockdown, people have been told to work from home unless they are unable to do so, in order to stop the spread of the disease.
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, the prime minister said it was his “intention” to scrap that guidance when the final stage of the unlocking roadmap was reached “provided we stay on track”.
“I want to be sure people will wait until we are able to say that with more clarity a bit later on,” he added. “We must be guided by what is happening with the pandemic.”
The Government will set up an independent public inquiry with statutory powers into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Boris Johnson has said. The Prime Minister told MPs the inquiry will begin in spring 2022 and will place “the state’s actions under the microscope”. The inquiry will be able to take oral evidence under oath, he said, adding that the state has an obligation “to learn every lesson for the future”. It comes as a damning report from the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO), said a quicker international response could have stopped the 2019 Covid-19 outbreak in China becoming a global catastrophe.