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1. Terrific piece on how @WHO was overcome by #Covid19, by @betswrites & @drewfhinshaw. WHO has taken a boatload of criticism for its handling of the pandemic. This piece explains why it acts the way it does: WHO is what countries want it to be. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-who-was-built-to-guard-global-health-it-was-too-weak-for-coronavirus-11598625537
2. It was common early in the #Covid19 pandemic for people to wax nostalgic about Gro Brundtland, @WHO's director general during SARS; she called out China for hiding the new disease.
Brundtland only served one term as DG; she didn't run for a second. Unclear she could have won.
Brundtland only served one term as DG; she didn't run for a second. Unclear she could have won.
3. After SARS, WHO's member countries — which give it its marching orders & outline what it can & cannot do — rewrote rules to try to prevent another SARS. They did not want someone to do what Brundtland had done to China.
4. The rules @WHO's member states crafted, the International Health Regulations 2005, built in a more time-consuming process for issuing global health alerts, to ensure WHO didn't issue unilateral declarations. Better to constrain WHO than jump quickly on an emerging threat.
5. The US is a huge critic of @WHO; the Trump administration will withdraw the country from the global health agency if it is reelected. The US has always had a huge hand in WHO governance. It helped design & forge the shackles that constrict the agency.
6. There are currently talks underway about how to fix @WHO's problems. This is a perennial effort. And there's skepticism countries will give the agency the powers it would need to be more equipped to respond to future pandemics.
