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GENEVA: As the coronavirus exploded around the world, scientists at the World Health Organization (WHO) were sometimes privately frustrated by mistakes made by some of their major donor countries, but were reluctant to say so. publicly, leaked recordings of internal meetings show.
After strong criticism for not taking on a bigger role in reducing the pandemic, the United Nations health agency is holding its annual meeting this week under intense pressure to reform.
WHO also expects US President-elect Joe Biden to reverse Washington’s decision to leave the organization adopted by the Trump administration in June.
READ: WHO chief hopes to work ‘very closely’ with Biden’s team
One of the central dilemmas of the WHO is that it has no enforcement powers or authority to independently investigate epidemics. Instead, the agency relies on behind-the-scenes conversations and cooperation from countries.
As the pandemic picked up pace, WHO often avoided calling some of its major donors, including Japan, France and Britain.
WHO scientists labeled some of its approaches “macabre” and “an unfortunate laboratory to study the virus,” according to dozens of leaked recordings of internal WHO meetings and January-April documents obtained by the Associated Press.
“By not speaking out when countries are doing questionable things, the WHO is undermining its own authority while the planet burns,” said Sophie Harman, professor of international politics at Queen Mary University of London.
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Others said it would be politically unwise for the WHO to be too open unless countries gave the agency more power.
“If Tedros were to take a very aggressive stance towards member countries, there would be repercussions,” said Suerie Moon, co-director of the Center for Global Health at the Geneva Graduate Institute, referring to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
A worker in a protective suit gestures to a driver outside a tumor hospital recently designated to treat COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, on February 15, 2020 (Photo: Chinatopix via AP).
WHO spokeswoman Farah Dakhlallah said that since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, “WHO officials have had and continue to have frank and open discussions with their government counterparts … We are proud of an organizational culture that encourages frank discussions “.
It is not unheard of for the WHO to publicly question its member states. It threatened to close its office in China when the country was hiding cases during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, and loudly called on Nigeria to reverse its boycott of the polio vaccine in 2003.
READ: WHO says its office first alerted it to coronavirus, not China
The WHO’s reluctance to call countries began with China, as previously reported by AP. Despite a meeting in January between Tedros and Chinese President Xi Jinping, information from Beijing was still scant throughout February.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for COVID-19, said the agency lacked “enough detail to say what has worked and what has not.”
Scientists at WHO soon began to worry about Japan. On February 1, a passenger disembarking from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Hong Kong tested positive for the coronavirus. At the ship’s next stop in Yokohama, authorities put all 3,711 people on board under lockdown.
A small boat sails near the Diamond Princess cruise ship that anchors in the port of Yokohama near Tokyo, Japan, February 4, 2020 (Photo: AP / Eugene Hoshiko)
WHO’s emergency chief Michael Ryan told reporters at the time: “Let’s be careful not to overreact.” But on February 10, the case count nearly doubled overnight.
“(That) is not surprising given the nature of the research response,” Ryan told an internal meeting, noting that Japan had only assigned a small number of epidemiologists to investigate.
Dr Thomas Grein, head of the WHO acute event management team, said they had not gotten much information from their Japanese counterparts, calling it a “very, very sensitive topic.”
Although the WHO was well aware that the situation was deteriorating, scientists said the outbreak could help understand the transmission of COVID-19.
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“(It’s) unfortunate, but a useful opportunity to study the natural history of the virus,” Ryan said.
In late February, the virus also took hold in Italy, making Europe the epicenter of the pandemic.
At WHO, Grein told colleagues that the organization’s efforts to obtain more details on the spiraling outbreaks in Italy and elsewhere had “failed spectacularly” as officials were concerned about the lack of action taken across Europe. .
However, on March 8, Tedros tweeted that “the government and people of Italy are taking bold and courageous steps to curb the spread of #coronavirus.”
Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights at Georgetown University, said WHO should be obliged to report when countries do not share data, saying it was dangerous for the agency to “fly blindly”.
WHO also privately complained that Western countries hoard scarce pandemic supplies.
A masked tourist walks past a painting at the Louvre Museum in Paris, March 5, 2020 (Photo: AP / Francois Mori)
“We had the terrible situation yesterday with (personal protective equipment) where all supplies were seized in France and we lost access,” Ryan told his colleagues.
When countries in Europe adopted social distancing measures and canceled mass gatherings in early March, Ryan noted that one country did not: Great Britain.
“There is not a single sporting event in Europe and yet every Premier League match in the UK must go ahead,” he said. Ryan described Britain’s strategy against the pandemic as “problematic” after hearing the UK’s chief science officer say the country was targeting herd immunity.
“For that to happen, hundreds of thousands and millions of older people will be infected and there will be many deaths,” Ryan said.
READ: Comment: Why does someone keep talking about herd immunity?
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a laboratory at England’s National Public Health Infection Service, in Colindale, north London, after more than 10 new COVID-19 patients were identified in England on 1 March 2020 (Photo: Henry Nicholls / Pool via AP)
Still, he said different approaches to tackling COVID-19 globally could turn out to be “a massive ecological study” that would allow WHO to document what worked.
“It’s macabre in a way, but it’s reality,” he said.
Going forward, WHO’s role in trying to stop the pandemic will depend in part on the independent panel’s review. Harman, the Queen Mary University expert, sympathized with the WHO having a huge responsibility in the first months of COVID-19, but said even bigger challenges lie ahead.
“With the next wave of the pandemic, I think the time for quiet diplomacy has passed,” he said.
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