GENEVA (SWITZERLAND) – The World Health Organization (WHO) would establish an independent panel to review its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the response by various governments, it said on Thursday.
This announcement comes after scathing criticism by US president Donald Trump who accused the organisation of being “China-centric”.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual meeting comprising representatives of WHO’s 194 member states that former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf have agreed to head the panel and chose its members.
“This is not a standard report that ticks a box and is then put on a shelf to gather dust. This is something we take seriously,” Tedros said. The panel would submit an interim report to an annual meeting of health ministers being reconvened in November.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field