The WHO chartered something called the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and yesterday they released their second report. It's not too long, so I read the whole thing to judge for myself how bad the headlines are. Here's my summary of its contents:

  • The whole world was totally unprepared

  • Measurements like the Global Health Security Index turned out to be bullshit

  • Social media has created an infodemic

  • Inequalities everywhere have been exacerbated

  • Poorer countries are unjustly being left without access to PPE and vaccines

  • Precarious and informal workers in wealthy countries are suffering disproportionately

  • "Public health containment measures should have been implemented immediately in any country with a likely case. They were not."

  • Some countries (unnamed) sacrificed public health and lives to make the line go up

  • Overall, the Asia-Pacific countries and the Africa CDC have been doing a decent job

  • The global supply chain is weak

  • The WHO should have used the term "pandemic" sooner than March

  • The WHO is underfunded and forced to waste too much time fundraising

Also buried in the report is this single criticism of China:

Public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January.

Guess which parts the Western media chose to focus on?

Business Insider: An elite panel of world leaders has called out China for its bungled coronavirus response

CNN: China and WHO acted too slowly to contain Covid-19, says independent panel

Forbes: China, World Health Organization Failed To Act Quickly At The Start Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Report Finds

The Week: Independent panel slams China and WHO over Covid-19 response

AP: China, WHO should have acted quicker to stop pandemic

Sydney Morning Herald: 'Signal was ignored': Independent inquiry criticises China and WHO over COVID

Seattle Times: Panel: China, WHO should have acted quicker to stop pandemic

Remember when the imperialist media was criticizing China for acting too aggressively and authoritarian with its lockdowns? Lmao

  • TankieTanuki [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Pandemic preparedness financing has been treated as a cost rather than an investment, and as a result has been neither secure nor sustainable. In relation to response, it appears on preliminary evidence considered by the Panel that financial mechanisms at the global level were too slow and uncoordinated to provide the necessary financial support to enough countries in a timely fashion to enable them to escalate their responses and to mitigate pandemic impacts sufficiently. There has been a lack of ignition funding and risk capital to accelerate R&D and manufacturing. Weaknesses in the financing infrastructure also extend to WHO, which finds itself required to engage in perpetual fundraising efforts, to the detriment of its ability to concentrate on the delivery of its core priorities, including in pandemic preparedness and response.

    So, of course, the US pulled its funding to the WHO to punish them for not having enough resources.