(Bloomberg) -- The World Health Organization should be overhauled and given more authority to investigate global disease threats, according to a review of the international Covid-19 response that found a myriad of failures, gaps, and delays allowed the coronavirus to mushroom into a pandemic.
In the first weeks of the pandemic, the WHO could have warned countries to assume that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was spreading among people as a precaution, according to the panel, which was established at the request of the World Health Assembly, WHO’s decision-making body, a year ago.
WHO, Nations’ Covid Response Hampered by Politics, Reviewer Says
WHO also could have declared the outbreak in Wuhan, China, a public health emergency of international concern -- the highest level of global alert -- earlier by at least Jan. 22, Clark said.
The role of the WHO and its director-general have been contentious from the early days of the pandemic as governments sought to understand how the virus emerged and was allowed to spread unchecked.
In the first weeks of the pandemic, the WHO could have warned countries to assume that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was spreading among people as a precaution, according to the panel, which was established at the request of the World Health Assembly, WHO’s decision-making body, a year ago.
WHO, Nations’ Covid Response Hampered by Politics, Reviewer Says
WHO also could have declared the outbreak in Wuhan, China, a public health emergency of international concern -- the highest level of global alert -- earlier by at least Jan. 22, Clark said.
The role of the WHO and its director-general have been contentious from the early days of the pandemic as governments sought to understand how the virus emerged and was allowed to spread unchecked.
