I read this article by @dhpierson @latimes a few times. it is accurate that @WHO struggles to protect and promote health of people worldwide because of power plays the biggest countries like US, China, Russia, Japan, etc. Also cuz of large funders. this is not unique to WHO. https://twitter.com/dhpierson/status/1245537420658888708

Most of if not all UN orgs are faced with dealing with national interest power plays (Gen Ass, Sec Coun, WTO, etc). The WHO has repeatedly been told to stay out of politics and only provide tech assistance to govts. This DG is the most poly savvy of any in recent times.

the only quotes are from 4 people, whom I know. while i respect them for their scholarship, none of them have worked inside the WHO, or the UN system as far as I know. There are recently retired WHO employees, ex and current ambassadors in Geneva, special health envoys (hint)

speaking as an American, we also need to break this bad habit of calling Harvard or a US expert, even though the world leading expert is outside the US. whatsapp is a free call. its just lazy and parochial journal. (yes i know this journo is based in Singapore)

also, this particular intl health organization, the WHO, was initially the idea of a Chinese doctor diplomat. along with a Brazilian. Americans did not create it, though Americans now dominate it from bottom to top. The Chinese govt might rightly feel they have a claim to it.

to change the WHO, and international system so it puts health of people worldwide first, we must first get views from different places in the world. and a full history of what we dealing with. Or, we can just play politics and dominate the conversation.

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/126402/1947.pdf;jsessionid=5823C40549A8D0E6E97C095131C1D2DB?sequence=2