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:
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The whole world was totally unprepared
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Measurements like the Global Health Security Index turned out to be bullshit
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Social media has created an infodemic
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Inequalities everywhere have been exacerbated
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Poorer countries are unjustly being left without access to PPE and vaccines
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Precarious and informal workers in wealthy countries are suffering disproportionately
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"Public health containment measures should have been implemented immediately in any country with a likely case. They were not."
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Some countries (unnamed) sacrificed public health and lives to make the line go up
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Overall, the Asia-Pacific countries and the Africa CDC have been doing a decent job
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The global supply chain is weak
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The WHO should have used the term "pandemic" sooner than March
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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?
CNN: China and WHO acted too slowly to contain Covid-19, says independent panel
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
First of all, no the fuck they weren’t lol, but I guess whatever the fuck you need to say to hold on to your “China bad” brain worms. I’m talking about things like a 10 year study showing 95% satisfaction with the government, show me anything remotely comparable for the US or other comparable capitalist state.
It’s not at the expense of the people because life has gotten better in leaps and bounds for the people specifically because of the same policies that produced billionaires, the existence of billionaires in and of itself being regrettable. Do you seriously think if given the choice of undoing all the reform and opening up policies which allowed China to build world class infrastructure for the people and eradicate extreme poverty they would jump at that opportunity because “hey at least there wouldn’t be any billionaires 😡”. This is just clueless.
explain to me how a government can both allow the existence of billionaires or spend that much on internal propaganda/silencing and claim to be "for the people". because I can't think of one good god damn reason. and neither can you without FAR more drugs than I'm on right now.
chinas progress mostly happened during or as the result of their old communist policies, from back when they weren't just a disgusting shit hole and maybe we could have hoped for them to be something. I don't know about you, but I think capitalism is bad, and that it doesn't liberate people. fuck you and your libertarian "markets will save us" bullshit.
You’re 100% absolutely clueless about China, please go read about it, like actually read, lefty Facebook memes don’t count.
The Chinese government is for the people because it governs for the people, lifting them out of poverty, listening to their concerns and problems and solving them. It’s pretty obvious that you’ve spent absolutely no time at all speaking with people who are from China and have no curiosity whatsoever about the reality of living there. You saw the China bad memes on reddit and gobble it up like a gullible moron.
Obviously. I’m a communist. I don’t look at a country where the communist party has successfully pulled hundreds of millions out of poverty and improved life dramatically and think “disgusting shit hole” because the people are yellow and the New York Times told me they don’t have freedom of speech there. Take your western chauvinism and get fucked.
you sound a lot like a capitalist right now. because you're spouting all the standard defenses of capitalism. i do not wish to engage in this anymore. please don't reply.