The World Health Organization’s position over the COVID-19 crisis has been under scrutiny since the pandemic’s onset last year. Much pessimism and speculation come from the United States; the government claims that the WHO hasn’t done its part and hasn’t been serious about China’s involvement. The US has seen the worst of the crisis, with more than 262,000 COVID deaths.
Denying China’s involvement in the international investigations, WHO’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus states that information on the members of the investigation team was made public from the very beginning.
“There is nothing to hide. We want to know the origin. I don’t want to have any confusion on that.” Tedros added.
Further, WHO discourages viewing the pandemic situation from a political lens. As it is an unexpected phenomenon, Tedros stated:
We want to know the origin, and we will do everything to know the origin. [. . .] WHO’s position is very, very clear. We need to know the origin of this virus because it can help us prevent future outbreaks.
Critics are questioning why there was dawdling on WHO’s part for investigating the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus at the beginning. The accusations have gone to the extent that the WHO may have let China overpower international investigations. The lockdown-tied anger from all over the world only fuels up when figures like 1.47 million deaths and 63 million infected people worldwide surface.
A team of epidemiologists and animal health specialists was sent by WHO to trace the origin of the virus, and how humans transmitted it, there were also plans to send a larger team of scientists to China for epidemiological studies to find out the first-ever human cases to trace the source of infection. However, when that would be is still unclear.
