Introduction:
The world health organization is a well-known organization which was created in the year 1948 with the objective to coordinate health issues and emergencies within the United Nations systems. The initial priority of WHO was the outbreak of malaria, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. WHO also coordinates the issues regarding the health of women and children and the use of proper sanitization. The primary function of the WHO is to identify the emerging new epidemics and pandemics and to issue the guidelines for the same. With government WHO also coordinates with other UN nations, non-government organizations and private institutions, donor and non-donor countries. WHO has 192 member countries and employed about 8000 people which includes the best scientists, doctors, epidemiologist etc.
The Falling Trust and Credibility
WHO was highly appreciated for its works towards the eradication of the smallpox pandemic. But today The World health organization is being highly criticized and being continually questioned for its failure to stop the spread of the novel Coronavirus. Many countries including The United States of America says that it has lost its trust on the WHO and from starting of the Coronavirus pandemic, the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump is criticizing the efforts of WHO to stop the spread of the virus. America has officially left the WHO and stopped the funding for the WHO as it believes that the world health organization works on the hands of the Republic of China. The Relationship of China and WHO is the main reason why countries stopped trusting WHO. And the experts suggest that the WHO didn’t take any important steps which it should take when there was a confirmation of an outbreak of a disease in Wuhan. Many claims that because China is a main voluntarily donor of the World Health Organization it didn’t take any action against the Virus until it did not become a pandemic. The Who is also criticized because from the start it is making contrary statements on the origin and nature of the Coronavirus. Firstly it suggested that it Coronavirus can not spread by human to human transmission and suggested that the virus is given by the animals to humans. It primarily said there is no need to stop international travel from China to other countries even when at that time China was not allowing the people of Wuhan to move within the territory of China. Firstly United States of America took a dig at WHO and suggested that the virus is not transmitted by an animal to human but it is made in a virology laboratory of Wuhan and it questions the relationship of WHO chief Dr Tedros with China. When many countries started to make pressure on the world health organization than it finally admitted to sending a team to China to know the reason and origin of the Coronavirus pandemic. It took WHO five months to Declared the Novel Coronavirus a pandemic. Till that time the virus was spread to each corner of the world. WHO was also criticized over giving wrong guidelines regarding the use of masks, it firstly states that healthy people who do not have symptoms of Novel Coronavirus does not need to wear masks. WHO was making contradictory statements regarding the novel Coronavirus from the start of the pandemic. In January WHO even said that is to early to stop travelling from china and declaring it a public health emergency of international concern. The support of WHO to China raised many questions because WHO being an international organization should not favour any one country and this the reason why the countries and individual decided not to give importance to WHO guidelines and other information issued by the WHO. And as individuals, we can’t trust WHO anymore because WHO has to give an answer about despite being every knowledge and despite having sufficient funds and sufficient and proper human resources why the Coronavirus became a pandemic in the first place and why even after living with the virus for almost a year why is WHO unable to confirm the origin and reason of the novel Coronavirus. And even if as individuals we look at the sequence of the WHO guidelines and information about the novel Coronavirus, the criticism faced by the WHO seems so fair. On March 12 WHO even said that the pandemic can still be controlled but by July the pandemic was far from “ over”. Even regarding the vaccines the WHO is seeing favouring China. WHO widely criticized Russia for giving authorization to a vaccine before completing the trials but when China issued the emergency Authorization for its vaccine the WHO didn’t raise any questions regarding this. The WHO even took a dig on the USA and India to fast-track the production and trial for the Coronavirus virus vaccine. When countries like America and Russia told that they hope to have a Coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year 2020, WHO was saying that vaccine production takes at least 18 months which means without coordination and support of its member countries WHO was issuing statement contrary to its member countries and it only triggers the criticism for the WHO on its efforts for the Coronavirus pandemic.
The world health organization was also criticized for its guidelines on using the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine when doctors and reports from around the world were supporting the use of the drug to slow the mortality rate of the Coronavirus, World Health Organization stated late that its use shows little or no reduction in the mortality rate of the Coronavirus so it was again criticized for the same.
The main reasons why the WHO faced criticism and trust in the organization was lost:
- Firstly, the origin of the Coronavirus: The WHO from the starting states that the virus is of animal origin and it was not created by China. Donald Trump in his official statement said he saw full proof evidence of Coronavirus being a man-made virus and he even stated that the virus is made in china and he repeatedly calls the Coronavirus virus as “Chinese Virus”.
- Secondly WHO was criticized for the use of masks: WHO firstly told that only sick people and people with Coronavirus symptoms have to wear masks and lately after the spread of virus surged the WHO suggested the use of masks for the general public.
- Thirdly WHO failed to give information regarding when the virus spread throughout to other countries.
- Lastly, the world health organization was criticized for its call of not closing the borders with China.
By the above-mentioned facts, it is clearly proven that because of the WHO irresponsibility regarding the Coronavirus pandemic is the main reason why the world is not even able to control the spread of the virus and it is clear that because china is one the top 20 voluntarily donors of the WHO it favoured China even in the time of the pandemic. Pandemic is a word which can not be taken lightly but the main organization which was supposed to keep the world safe from the virus did not take it seriously.
Lastly, it is fair to raise the question of WHO’s and its relationship with China and China’s increasing power. China acts as a dominant nation in this organization, it even stopped Taiwan from being a member of the organization. So it is important now to stop china from manipulating this organization and the all the other countries should take action against WHO and China for the spreading the Virus by not taking it seriously and not warning the world at the correct time. If the world was informed about the virus in early times like November of last year by the WHO it may have been controlled by now and if the travel from china was stopped at the time , the world may have been protected by the biggest pandemic of the century. WHO however rejected the accusations and criticism and it continues to talk about global unity and integrity.
Conclusion
Because of its poor handling of the Coronavirus pandemic, it is fair not to trust the world health organization for future pandemic and there is a need of other organization for controlling future epidemics and pandemics. The economy of almost every country is quashed except china so, there is a need to check the origin if the Coronavirus and to conduct an investigation if it is a natural or a human-made virus. And if the world manages to escape the virus and end the virus the credits for it cannot be given to the world health organization but to the doctors and scientists for their hard work. And there is a need to check the functioning of the World Health Organization. But at the same time WHO deserves a second chance to keep forward their part of the story but their failure to stop the spread of the virus should not be ignored and the world needs to be more cautious on its own for future epidemics and pandemics.
References:
- Bayram Altug, WHO criticized over contradictory COVID 19 statements, AA journal,( 07.07.2020),https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/who-criticized-for-contradictory-covid-19-statements/1902436
- Jamie Durcharme, We don’t trust data blindly, Time,( April 20, 2020),https://time.com/5824322/who-coronavirus-response-maria-van-kerkhove/
- https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/who-criticized-for-contradictory-covid-19-statements/1902436
- https://time.com/5824322/who-coronavirus-response-maria-van-kerkhove/
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