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The WHO has sent its employees an email with a series of questions and answers about the case of the document “An unprecedented challenge, Italy’s first response to Covid”, published on the WHO website on May 13 and removed after 24 hours. The document described how Italy lacked an updated pandemic plan, and its elimination generated discussion and controversy. The email is titled “Responsive Questions and Answers for Media Questions” and was posted on the Health Policy Watch website.
The whole story is complex and delicate: the Bergamo prosecutor is also dealing with it, who has launched an investigation to find out what were the directives communicated to the doctors between the end of February and the beginning of March. The researchers want to know if Italy had a national pandemic plan, an important document because it indicates the health strategy to adopt in the event of a pandemic. From what has emerged thus far, it would appear that Italy’s pandemic plan dates back to 2006, and was re-proposed identical in all subsequent updates, until the last publication in 2017: the WHO document published and then deleted after 24 said so too. hours.
The broadcast also took over the case. Report. Second Report, the departure from the WHO site would have been caused by pressure exerted by the person who should have updated the pandemic plan, namely Ranieri Guerra, in 2017 director general of Prevention of the Ministry of Health and today assistant to the director general of the WHO. Francesco Zambon, coordinator at the Venetian headquarters of the WHO and author of the document, said that he had “received pressure and threats of dismissal to modify the report and write that the pandemic plan dates back to 2016 and not 2006, as it is.”
– Read also: Did Italy have a pandemic plan?
WHO’s internal guidelines tell employees how to answer questions about this whole matter and have been classified as an “internal, not for sharing” report. But Health policy surveillance he managed to obtain them from one of his sources and published them.
Some of the questions and answers published by WHO (Health Policy Watch)
To the question “Has Italy asked to withdraw the report?”, The answer suggested by the WHO is: “No. The decision to withdraw the document from the site was taken by the European office of the WHO and is due to factual inaccuracies.” Another important question is “Is the WHO covering Italy?” The answer suggested to the employees: “No, the WHO maintains frank and frank communications with governments all the time. The organization conducts all activities impartially and without fear. to punishments or expectations of favors ”.
To any questions about the testimony of Francesco Zambon, the WHO suggests saying: “If Dr. Zambon testifies in a personal capacity, he cannot speak about the problems of the WHO, his work or his relationships with the WHO and with other officials. WHO does not disclose or make reference to documents or information owned by WHO, including correspondence or verbal exchanges. To preserve its objectivity and independence, the organization does not deal with political, administrative or legal matters at the national level. “
It is not unusual or suspicious in itself for an organization to instruct its employees on how to deal with reporters, but Health policy surveillance writes that, more than an internal corporate guide, the document with questions and answers to journalists builds a corporate narrative to support Ranieri Guerra’s position: and does not cite evidence or arguments in favor of his thesis, nor does he comment on the background of the version of Zambon. To questions posed on Tuesday by Health policy surveillance On Zambon’s willingness to testify, a spokesperson for the WHO European Office responded using exactly the responses from the guidelines, almost word for word.
On Wednesday, December 16, Ranieri Guerra granted an interview to the AGI in which he assures that the document “was withdrawn by decision of the Copenhagen office” and that he proposed “to save it by proposing that two colleagues from the Higher Institute of Health join the colleagues of Venice to correct the imperfections and to republish the Improved Report in a couple of days.
Guerra also defends himself against the accusation of having threatened Francesco Zambon to change the date of the pandemic plan by updating it to 2016, he alleges Report by spreading this email.
(Report)
“I think Report He only made one email public, and not quite, ”Guerra said. “The series of emails before and after give a different and more complete light on the situation, although my confidentiality has so far prevented me from making them public. In fact, I first read the text of the Report proposed for publication when it has already been deposited by my colleagues in Venice, and I propose some corrections, asking that the publication date be delayed by two days. I know that two other colleagues from the Copenhagen office, on which Venice depends, also did the same. Many of the proposed corrections are in fact accepted by colleagues and are present in the text of the published Report: the email that Report Public refers to the period before publication and to the version never circulated. I have never had anything to say about the published text, although I still believe that it could be improved, given the inaccuracies and inconsistencies that it continued to have ”.
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