Geneva: The World Health Organization defended Friday its initial response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying it gave world leaders enough time to intervene early in the outbreak.
The agency declared Covid-19 a global health emergency on Jan. 30 when there were only 82 cases outside of China and zero deaths, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference on Friday. “Meaning, the world had enough time to intervene.”
“Me and my colleagues believe that,” he added. “To declare a global emergency in that situation I think it says it all. It says it all.”
Tedros also emphasized that WHO sent a team of scientists and infectious disease experts in February to China when there were “many unknowns” and the outbreak “was raging.”
“We didn’t waste any time. We didn’t want to waste any time,” he said. “I remember then people advising us then not to travel to China because this virus is new … and we said, ‘No, we go.’”
Last month, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would suspend funding to the WHO while it reviews the agency’s response to the pandemic. He criticized the WHO’s response to the outbreak, saying “one of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations” that Trump imposed early on in the outbreak.
At the time, Tedros expressed “regret” for Trump’s decision and said WHO would turn to other countries to help fill any gaps in financing.
