Leaked Recordings Reveal WHO Scared to Criticise Countries Over Covid

Leaked Recordings have Revealed that the WHO was Scared to Criticise Certain Countries over their handling of Covid.

Leaked recordings obtained by The Associated Press have now shown that the WHO, in their private meetings, were afraid of saying anything negative about countries like Great Britain, France, and Japan, over the way they were dealing with Covid, and making constant mistakes about how to deal with the virus.

The WHO’s annual meeting is being held this week, with many influential people criticizing them for the way they have handled the virus and the pandemic, believing that the WHO should have acted more strongly and vocally towards the whole virus situation.
Of course, one of the main topics of discussion will be whether US President-elect, Joe Biden is likely to overturn Donald Trump’s decision in June 2020 to pull funding out of the WHO.

In recordings that The Associated Press have in their possession, top scientists from the WHO, in early internal meetings, can clearly be heard describing various countries’ approaches to Covid as, “an unfortunate laboratory to study the virus” and “a macabre opportunity to see what worked”, whilst in public, lauding the same governments for their efficient responses.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday 9th November that the agency welcomed “any attempts to strengthen it for the sake of the people we serve”, knowing that Biden has gone on record as saying he will overturn Trump’s decision.
With its lack of power to make any independent investigations into countries’ internal affairs, the WHO must rely solely upon the cooperation of the member states, and behind-the-scenes-talks, as the only form of any substantial information.

According to dozens of leaked recordings obtained by The Associated Press, of internal WHO meetings and documents, from January 2020 to April 2020, it does appear as though the WHO often backed down from calling out member states like Great Britain, Japan, and France, for making repeated mistakes, with certain public health experts claiming this failure to exert any influence, led to those countries adopting some very risky policies on how to best deal with the pandemic, which possibly then even harmed the spread of the virus.

Sophie Harman, who is a professor of international politics at Queen Mary University in London, stated, “We need the WHO to be bold and to use their political power to name and shame because the consequences are so devastating. This is their Spanish flu moment, and by not speaking up when countries are doing questionable things, the WHO is undermining its own authority while the planet burns.”

Germany and France recently proposed a scheme where the WHO could be given more powers to be able to censure any country that they felt needed bringing into line, but the feeling also is that it can be dangerous politically for the WHO to be too outspoken towards countries.

Co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, Suerie Moon, referring to the WHO’s director-general, has said, “If Tedros was to take a very aggressive stance toward member countries, there would be repercussions”, and Farah Dakhlallah, who is a spokeswoman for the WHO, said that since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, “WHO officials have had and continue to have, frank and open discussions with government counterparts. We are proud of an organizational culture that fosters candid discussion to reach life-saving solutions.”

One scientist, Dr Michael Ryan, speaking on March 11th 2020, about the WHO’s approach to also laid out the WHO’s approach to which of the countries weren’t doing enough, commented, “The answer to that question is, you know who you are. The WHO doesn’t interact in public debate, or criticize our member states in public. What we try to do is work with our member states constructively.”

However, it is not unprecedented, for the WHO to publicly question its member states, as in recent years it has in 2003 called for Nigeria to reverse its boycott of the polio vaccine, accused Tanzania of not sharing enough information about an Ebola epidemic last year, as well as threatening to close its China office when the country was accused of hiding cases during the SARS outbreak.

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Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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