Covid-19: A world without WHO is a world in danger, experts warn

The World Health Organization’s lack of power to ensure its members follow its advice and problems with funding may have hampered its response to the covid-19 pandemic, but accusations that it has not been transparent or is China-centric are unfounded, experts have said.

Questions on WHO were put to experts on global health, politics, and covid-19 at a hearing held by the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee on 17 July.1

The session was convened after the US announced it was withdrawing from WHO—and claimed that China had “total control” over the organisation. The withdrawal could be reversed if Joe Biden wins the US presidential election in November.2

Speaking on the importance of WHO, Brian McCloskey, senior consulting fellow for the global health programme at Chatham House, said, “A world without WHO is a world in danger. We will not find a way out of this pandemic through a series of disconnected national plans, it needs international coordination and a body like WHO to …