Countries around the world unite for official probe into coronavirus causes and how planet reacted to killer bug
AN investigation is to be held into the global response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak amid criticism the World Health Organisation “sided” with China.
The WHO also bowed to calls from member states to look into how it managed the crisis – which has been clouded by finger-pointing between the US and China.
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The move was approved without objection by the WHO’s 194-member annual assembly which met virtually in Geneva.
It is intended to review “lessons learned from WHO’s coordination of the global response” but would stop short of looking into contentious issues like the exact origins of the killer virus.
The resolution also calls for the world to ensure “transparent, equitable and timely access” to any treatments or vaccines, and pushes for the organisation to investigate the “source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population”.
Donald Trump has claimed he has proof suggesting it originated in a Chinese lab while the scientific community has insisted all evidence shows the virus likely jumped into humans from animals.
On Monday, the US president slammed the WHO for having done a “very sad job” and said he was considering whether to cut the annual US funding from $450 million a year to just $40 million.
“They gave us a lot of bad advice, terrible advice,” he said. “They were wrong so much, always on the side of China.”
Later he tweeted a letter he had sent WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
In it, he said the only way forward is if the oganisation can actually demonstrate “independence” from Beijing.
He added unless the WHO commits to substantive improvements over the next 30 days, he will make a temporary suspension of US funding permanent.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the WHO, claiming it helped China conceal the extent of the pandemic in its early stages.
In the past he has claimed the UN agency had “failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable” for promoting China’s “disinformation” over the pandemic.
He said that mistake led to a wider outbreak of the virus, which has now cost more than 300,000 lives around the world.
What is the WHO, and why has it faced coronavirus criticism?
The World Health Organization was founded in 1948, and is based in Switzerland.
It is the UN agency responsible for global public health, and has 194 member states.
It is involved in global vaccination campaigns, health emergencies and supporting primary care worldwide.
The WHO aims to “promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable”, and is funded by fees from members – with the amount dependent on population and wealth – and voluntary contributions.
In 2018-19 the US gave more than $400m, around 15% of the WHO’s budget. China gave more than any other country, apart from the US – providing around $86m.
Trump, who has branded the WHO “very China-centric”, has accused it of not properly assessing the outbreak when it first emerged in Wuhan.
He has claimed that had the agency called out China’s “lack of transparency” and not taken the country’s assurances at face value, the outbreak could potentially have been contained “with very little death”.
On January 14, the WHO tweeted that early Chinese investigations had found “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission” of the new virus.
But just a week later, the agency released a statement saying that it did appear that there was human-to-human transmission in Wuhan.
Despite the virus emerging in December, WHO experts were only allowed to visit China and investigate the outbreak on 10 February, by which time the country had more than 40,000 cases.
At the end of January, the WHO said travel restrictions were not needed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which many countries ignored, and there has been some criticism that the agency’s guidance on face masks has led to confusion among the public.
In response, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian urged the US to stop “stirring the pot” by “spreading fake statements”.
And one WHO official even claimed Trump has made “ignorant” and “incoherent” remarks while detailing the organisation’s response to the outbreak.
Tedros inisisted he would launch the independent evaluation of WHO’s response at the earliest appropriate moment.
In his opening remarks at the WHO meeting, he held firm and sought to focus on the bigger troubles posed by the outbreak, saying “we have been humbled by this very small microbe.”
“We all have lessons to learn from the pandemic. Every country and every organisation must examine its response and learn from its experience,” he added.
“WHO is committed to transparency, accountability and continuous improvement.”
EU spokeswoman Virginie Battu-Henriksson said several key questions needed to be answered.
“How did this pandemic spread? What is the epidemiology behind it? All this is absolutely crucial for us going forward to avoid another pandemic of this kind,” she said.
But she added that now was not the time for “any sort of blame game”
China has insisted it acted with “openness, transparency and responsibility” when the epidemic was detected in Wuhan.
President Xi Jinping said it had given all relevant outbreak data to the WHO and other countries, including the virus’s genetic sequence.
Xi said he supports the idea of a comprehensive review of the global response to Covid-19 and that it should be “based on science and professionalism led by the WHO, and conducted in an objective and impartial manner.”
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Tedros emphasised the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a global health emergency on January 30 at a time when there were fewer than 100 cases outside of China.
However, during the first few months of the outbreak, WHO officials repeatedly described the virus’s spread as “limited” and said it wasn’t as transmissible as flu – experts have since said it spreads even faster.
It declared the outbreak to be a pandemic on March 11, after the virus had killed thousands globally and sparked large epidemics in South Korea, Italy, Iran and elsewhere.