JAKARTA - Over the past few weeks, countries outside China have not sent adequate case reports to the World Health Organisation on time.
His comments in Munich followed reports that people of Asian descent have faced discrimination amid virus fears. At the WHO, the concern was compounded when terms like"virus outbreak,""epidemic" and"pandemic" got blurred even in reputable international media. Stunningly, it took until mid-February for some of the world's largest technology companies - including Google, Amazon and YouTube - to get together when the WHO hosted a Silicon Valley meeting to discuss how to clamp down on misinformation about the virus.
The smear campaign is an ugly déjà vu. In 2017, Mr Tedros, a high-level Ethiopian health executive, succeeded Margaret Chan as the chief WHO. When attacks against Mr Tedros went nowhere, the international spotlight focused on WHO infections hazards director Sylvia Briand when she stated in early February that"we are not in a pandemic." Then she became a target of criticism.
A decade later, the Chinese response to the Avian influenza was significantly faster, broadly praised and the disease did not spread widely. With Covid-19, as Mr Tedros has stated, China should be credited with identifying the virus in"record time," sharing its genetic sequence quickly and flagging potential international spread.
In other words, a whopping three of five member countries had failed to provide adequate information to the WHO in a timely manner. Instead, international coverage has produced a series of headlines against the WHO. On Feb 5, a day afterMr Tedros had urged countries to provide complete case reports, the Financial Times reported that the influential WHO emergency committee member and veteran professor John Mackenzie"hit out at Beijing's 'reprehensible' response," and"accused China of not reporting coronavirus cases fast enough.
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