WHO’s Legal Mandate Is Weak In Responding To COVID-19 Emergency; But Changes Are Up To Member States
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there could be “a window of opportunity… that would be suicidal to miss” to revise the International Health Regulations that govern countries’ behaviour during health emergencies, said Gian Luca Burci, former World Health Organization head legal counsel and now professor of international law, at a panel hosted by […] Continue reading ->
Essential health programmes such as polio eradication and trauma management, and programmes in the World Health Organizations’ Emergencies program, will be hit hardest by the suspension of US funding to the WHO. “The reality is for my programme, a lot of that US funding is aimed at direct life saving services to people in the […] Continue reading ->
Will the blue skies and rainbows seen in Delhi and other heavily polluted cities of the world be a fleeting image of the COVID-19 lockdown – or can it signal a change in trends around the world about how countries treat their environments? Save the shot – it may not recur soon. “This drop of […] Continue reading ->
With COVID-19 pandemic curves beginning to flatten out in many parts of the Europe, Health Policy Watch presents a snapshot of infection and death trends in WHO’s European region through graphs that tell the story, using up-to-date data from the COVID-19 tracker of the Geneva-based Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND). Notably, some striking, but […] Continue reading ->
In characteristically soft-spoken tones, World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued his strongest rebuttal yet to the recent allegations by United States President Donald Trump that the WHO had hidden information in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, or failed to inform WHO member states rapidly enough. Calling upon his own […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization experts are urging countries to use caution when determining whether to use large scale serological testing as part of their exit strategies from lockdowns. Serological testing identifies whether a person’s blood has antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, indicating that they were exposed to the virus at some point and […] Continue reading ->
The impacts on Africa of United States President Trump’s decision to withhold funding to the WHO will be ‘quite significant’ as the US is the “number one contributor” of the WHO African Region budget, said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, at a joint press conference hosted by the WHO and the World Economic […] Continue reading ->
The European Union, China, and Norway Wednesday joined UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in decrying United States President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend US funding to the World Health Organization – at a critical moment in the international agency’s coordination of the global COVID-19 response. Trump announced Tuesday night that the US administration would suspend […] Continue reading ->
As the World Health Organization becomes the target of attack by President Trump, his administration and political allies for its alleged failures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the main points of critique are reverberating throughout the media in an escalating cycle. After a week of mounting criticism, Trump announced on Tuesday night that he […] Continue reading ->
New Delhi, India – COVID-19 has posed unique challenges for healthcare providers across the globe, as the world has been grappling with the pandemic with no approved treatments or vaccines for the disease. Researchers are searching everywhere for drugs that may help treat or prevent the spread of the deadly virus. This has led to […] Continue reading ->