Geneva: A new global system should be set up to respond faster to disease outbreaks, which could ensure that no future virus causes a pandemic as devastating as COVID-19, an independent World Health Organisation review panel said on Wednesday.
The experts found crucial flaws in the global response in early 2020 - including a delay in declaring an emergency, a failure to impose travel restrictions and an entire “lost month” when countries neglected to respond to warnings - that let the virus quickly spread into a catastrophic pandemic.
To address those problems, the WHO should be given the power to send investigators swiftly to chase down new disease outbreaks, and to publish their full findings without delay.
In a report released in Geneva, the panel, which reviewed the World Health Organisation s response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic, also said the denial of scientific evidence was compounded by a failure of leadership to take responsibility or develop coherent strategies aimed at preventing community transmission.
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A panel of independent experts who reviewed the World Health Organisation s response to the coronavirus pandemic says the UN health agency should be granted guaranteed rights of access in countries to investigate emerging outbreaks, a contentious idea that would give it more powers and require member states to give up some of theirs.
In a report released on Wednesday, the panel faulted countries worldwide for their sluggish response to COVID-19, saying most waited to see how the virus was spreading until it was too late to contain it, leading to catastrophic results.
The group also slammed the lack of global leadership and restrictive international health laws that hindered WHO s response to the pandemic.
The panel faulted countries worldwide for their sluggish response to Covid-19, saying most waited to see how the virus was spreading until it was too late to contain it, leading to catastrophic results.