Coronavirus: World Health Organization (WHO)

When President Trump went after the World Health Organization (WHO), I was surprised to see on Twitter all these individuals coming to the support of the organization. Maybe I've been watching too many Peak Prosperity videos where a definite negative tone is given of the organization. WHO is an organization that back in January said that there was no evidence of human to human transmission . They didn't declare the virus a pandemic until Wednesday, March 11th. And then there's this interview about coronavirus and Taiwan that has gone viral, which really gives the impression that WHO is in bed with China. The initial tweet about human to human transmission might be forgiven as this tweet was made on January 14th, but the other two can't be forgiven especially since so many critics of President Trump are going after him for his February 26th statement where he stated: And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done.



Now I don't think the United States should cut funding to the WHO, but I also think that a deep dive review by an independent third party should be done of the organization after this pandemic has subsided (by that I mean, we don't have zero cases of COVID-19, but it has diminished to a manageable level). If there are findings that implicate certain high level people for failing in their duties, they should be let go. And we're not talking about some mid-level fall guy.

Yahoo via the New York Times has an interesting article that looks at others who also have issues with WHO:

In Japan, Taro Aso, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, recently noted that some people have started referring to the World Health Organization as the “Chinese Health Organization” because of what he described as its close ties to Beijing. Taiwanese officials say the WHO ignored its early warnings about the virus because China refuses to allow Taiwan, a self-governing island it claims as its territory, to become a member.

. . . Even as late as mid-January, as the virus spread beyond China’s borders, Chinese officials described it as “preventable and controllable” and said there was no evidence it could be transmitted between humans on a broad scale.

The WHO endorsed the government’s claims, saying in mid-January, for example, that human-to-human transmission had not been proved.

Critics say the organization’s repeated deference to Beijing exacerbated the spread of the disease. A group of international experts was not allowed to visit Wuhan until mid-February.

The article mentions that WHO argues that it doesn't have power over individual countries. True, but there is something called common sense and not taking things at face value.

Honestly, I really can't help but wonder that those who are supporting WHO at this moment are getting important funding from the Chinese government.