"Everybody knows what's going on there"

What's going on is an attempt to distract from from the USG's own failings by throwing @WHO under the bus instead.

The facts: https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1250187237356007424

The main complaint seems to be that in early January, WHO relayed initial reports from China uncritically, which cast doubt on human-to-human transmission.

The reality - they gave a very hedged, very caveated report that they made clear was preliminary. https://twitter.com/alexandraphelan/status/1250191095541219329?s=20

That was 14 January.

On 23 January, they published an official report that made clear that:
- Human-to-human transmission was occurring
- Transmissibility higher than seasonal flu
- Fatality rate ~40x seasonal flu
- 25% of cases severe
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/23-01-2020-statement-on-the-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)

So to pin the blame on WHO for this, you have to believe that somehow those 9 days between 14 and 23 January were critical to the lack of US preparedness.

It's lunacy. The administration spent the whole month of February doing nothing to meaningfully prepare the homeland.

You also have to believe that somehow the whole US preparedness posture (or lack thereof) was somehow deferred due to a single report in early January - as if the USG is solely reliant on WHO for this info and lacks any independent critical thinking skills of our own.

In reality our own govt experts were flashing red about the risk, as has been widely reported. They just couldn't get through to POTUS.

This is not about WHO's culpability or need for reform; it's about creating a scapegoat for the USG's own ineptness.

More here: https://twitter.com/postopinions/status/1250157649255112704?s=21 https://twitter.com/PostOpinions/status/1250157649255112704