ALL ILL, NO WILL

THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION’S SLOW AND PROBLEMATIC RESPONSE TO COVID-19 HAS REVEALED ITS TWO MAJOR WEAKNESSES— LACK OF AUTONOMY AND A SKEWED FUNDING SYSTEM

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

On April 26, as the number of Covid-19 patients worldwide, neared 30 lakh and deaths crossed two lakh, China reported just three new cases. The country’s National Health Commission said there were no new Covid-19 patients in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and the epicentre of the global pandemic. Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), had earlier praised China for its “bold approach” that changed the course “of a rapidly escalating and deadly epidemic”.

As China prepares to go back to normal, Covid-19 is causing turmoil in the rest of the world. Several countries are furious, alleging that China delayed its response in Wuhan. French President Emmanuel Macron recently questioned China’s handling of the outbreak, saying things “happened that we don’t know about”. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said “hard questions” would have to be asked about the outbreak and “how it could have been stopped earlier”. US President Donald Trump branded the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus”, prompting China to term his tweet as “racist and xenophobic”.

A Delhi-based expert who did not wish to be named said China was at the centre of this international catastrophe because it delayed sharing information about the outbreak in the first few weeks of the epidemic, and punished doctors and journalists who spoke out. The WHO, said the expert, downplayed the dangers—in effect exposing the rest of the world to the virus.