AP: WHO Likely Praised China’s Covid-19 Response to Elicit Data

An Associated Press report published on June 3 made the case that the effusive praise doled out by the World Health Organization to China in the early days of the novel coronavirus epidemic was part of the organization’s efforts to convince Beijing to release more information.

According to interviews, documents, and leaked recordings, AP reported, a competitive environment among Chinese state researchers lent itself to delays in information sharing. Further frustrating WHO officials was the strict control over data sharing exercised by the Chinese government. AP reported that WHO repeatedly requested epidemiologic and transmissibility data during a window of time when the virus was rapidly spreading unchecked, only to be denied this critical information by Chinese authorities.

Though researchers quickly sequenced the virus and reported results to Chinese authorities before January 1, AP reported, the government failed to share this information with the WHO, even as more Chinese labs achieved sequencing of the novel coronavirus in early January. The Chinese government did not publicly acknowledge the virus until after a surprise report about it appeared on January 8 in the Wall Street Journal.
President Trump, the AP article points out, has been vocal about his belief that WHO acted in collusion with China, while the new information obtained by AP suggests that WHO was in fact operating strategically in its outward support of the nation’s virus response. WHO has faced criticism for waiting to declare the outbreak a global emergency during a time frame in which it appears to have been walking a tightrope with China.

The AP asked health policy experts to weigh in: “It’s obvious that we could have saved more lives and avoided many, many deaths if China and the WHO had acted faster,’ said Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. However, Mokdad and other experts also noted that if WHO had been more confrontational with China, it could have triggered a far worse situation of not getting any information at all.”

Source:
https://apnews.com/3c061794970661042b18d5aeaaed9fae

Katie Pincura, DrPh, MPH, MA

Katie Pincura, DrPH, MA, MPH is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Assistant Professor of Health Sciences at Western Carolina University, College of Health and Human Sciences, School of Health Sciences. Dr. Pincura is a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Her research focuses on the intersection of healthcare policy and public health.

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