By Ann-Marie Ballantyne
Men often love to receive praise when they do well but these same men shun scrutiny, criticism and correction when their actions are irresponsible. They would prefer if their wickedness is “brushed under the carpet”. This must never be done especially when known action or inaction cause the loss of human lives.
Major lockdowns, massive deaths tolls, health problems, distress and disruptions that could have been prevented, persist all over the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has mishandled the coronavirus outbreak that was later declared a pandemic. They should be held accountable. In recent times, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has rightfully come “under fire” by a world that is waking up to WHO’s recklessness in the crisis.
The relationship between WHO and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), for example, continues to be highly questionable. Instead of rebuking the freedom-stifling party for their cover-up of vital information about the presence and spread of the virus in the early stage, China received praise for their so-called measures to contain the virus. China deserves no credit in this crisis. WHO should have known that the CCP could not be relied on for truthful information.
CCP censored whistle blowers and hindered the free flow of information that could have saved thousands of human lives. Even after being alerted of cases of unusual pneumonia-type virus, unrestricted travel continued out of China during the Chinese New year which obviously caused the virus to spread rapidly on a global scale. They should receive world-wide condemnation not praise.
A recent revelation from Taiwan News on April 11, showed that Taiwan had informed the WHO through an email since Dec. 31 “about the emergence of an atypical virus” in Wuhan, China. Taiwan also asked the World Health Organisation to share any “relevant information” with them. There is no evidence that WHO gave serious attention to Taiwan’s alert and request.
Instead of an expeditious investigation into the unusual virus, WHO seemed more concerned about lecturing the world against referring to the virus as the “Wuhan Chinese Virus”. In February, Tedros informed the world that the virus was called COVID-19 to help “to prevent stigmatising” of a people. Such reasoning is inconsistent with their naming of other diseases such Ebola, Zika and MERS which were given names based on their area of origin.
In January, the WHO was telling the world that there was no evidence of “human to human transmission”. WHO, with all its expertise and resources could have been more investigative and cautious. Why did they not heed the early warnings from Chinese doctors?
When some countries began making efforts to close borders, WHO said that “travel bans would unnecessary interfere with international travel and trade and could have the effect of increasing stigma and fear”. Doesn’t this big global organisation know that immunologists showed that the closure of borders was crucial in slowing the spread of the virus?
Some persons, for fear of being branded as “political”, “conspiracy theorist” or “too judgemental”, would prefer to remain silent. If we are daunted by such labels, we would remain ignorant, unprotected and at high risk.
In February, Tedros said that the virus was highly contagious and airborne. Yet WHO has failed to properly inform the world that proper wearing of masks in public by all is an effective measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Reputable studies are available in the public domain showing the airborne nature of the virus thus the importance of wearing mask. In early March, research from China written by Chinese epidemiologists informed us of a study done on a bus which showed how the virus was transmitted in a closed environment with air conditioning.
Some passengers who boarded a bus 30 minutes after an infected person had left, became infected through aerosol transmission from the infected passenger. Persons wearing face masks were not infected.
Why hasn’t WHO instructed its network of organisations and followers all over the world, including SVG Health, that they should unswerving encourage their populations to wear masks, with all the other good hygienic practices, to protect themselves?
Do they love to see people get sick and die? Are they really interested in taking strain off healthcare workers and health systems? There are many more questions and they have answers to them but they are careless and loveless.
Today, the world remains in an unprecedented crisis. Misinformation, ill-advised and confusing guidelines have been pushed by world institutions like WHO and have filtered down to regional and local bodies including our healthcare sector in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
All must be made to pay for their gross negligence and wickedness. They need to repent and get the love of God in their hearts to show genuine love and care for all humanity.
The opinions presented in this content belong to the author and may not necessarily reflect the perspectives or editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].
I am not convinced that the responsibility for what has befallen the global community can be laid at the door of the WHO, this is the line that has been parroted by the US with no direct evidence of any wrongdoing by the WHO. There will have to be an investigation of what happened in the future, but until then NO amount of eloquence in the argument been put forward by the writer can detract from the fact that it is her opinions, and as we know facts often trumps opinions. Unless she can show that she has an inside tract to the facts of this matter, then I would take the post as pure speculation.
https://youtu.be/AwFTZawOc9k
I agree 100% with your assessment. I do not see a clear or coherent argument as to why the WHO is to blame. Simply emotional arguments that do not clearly state what culpability the organisation had/has.
In my opinion, too much sadness is about, and people – sometimes the ill-informed or willfully ignorant – will always seek someone to blame when things are dire. That’s easier than facing a complex and nuanced situation.
Whether fact or opinion, in these days and times it is difficult to tell anymore. When we sit at home and see images on the news or hear on radio things about China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela or anywhere and anyone, how are we to know what is fact and what is “opinion”? If we have an inquisitive mind we will eventually come to the conclusion that there is far more FAKE, FAKE, FAKE than anything else. Were we there? Did we see it? Often you cannot even trust what you see. WE ARE ONLY ASSUMING WHAT WE ARE TOLD IS TRUE. Saddam did not have Nuclear Weapons Assad never gassed his own people.Putin did not hide your car keys. Maduro is not purposefully starving his own people, etc… HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT IS TRUE ANYMORE?
It has become obvious that most of the information put out about Covide 19, by governments and news is VERY inaccurate. I often believe the quip “Statistics are for losers” but think of this statistic: Although it is not over with the pandemic, and I am not saying to NOT be concerned but realize that the flu kills over ONE MILLION people every year and Covide 19 thus far has not killed even 200 thousand…globally, even though there is evidence that they are saying in some places that people died from the virus when they did not. Is this even true? Who knows…Does the WHO know?
I agree that no particular entity, even China is to be blamed. This is an entirely unprecedented occurrence, totally accidental, it appears. Each Government has a responsibility to do the best to minimize the ensuing damage. Some governments, like that of South Korea and that of Taiwan have done excellent jobs. The job is not complete though as reports say we are likely to have a second and worse wave.
Governments must step up, no sense at all blaming WHO, the people we pay to keep us safe are our own governments, not WHO.
The Trump Administration has done a terrible job and made the problem so much worse and now try to blame others. Trump has blamed everyone, but himself.
Here in SVG, there is no action being taken on the July carnival, (unless I missed it) and when we end up with a bacchanal here, WHO would not be responsible. I do not understand why the decision to close down our carnival is being delayed. To avoid major problems here we need to forego profits from the 2020 carnival, shut it down and look to 2021.
There is direct evidence stop watxhing fake news CNN….. AMEN ti this article…..thank god there are still people who are not sheep following the main stream media
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Concerned C, what do you find as opinion in this article? Do you see any fact, what do you consider fact in the article?
The article is loaded with fact, if you want I can prove some of the facts for you.
@ Concerned Citizen. While the Virus was the responsibility of China. The WHO contributed in giving consistent bad advice to the world. So they need to be held accountable also. Their role in the spread of Covid 19 is a very large one. So concerned citizen do not take this lightly. And the only reason you lable this wonderfully explained piece as pure speculation is because you lack the knowledge to do any better. So my advice is that you go and do some well needed research.
Boy Oh Boy! Many of the arguments made above sound like those made by Trump. Trump claimed earlier that WHO and China were involved in investigating the virus and were doing a good job. He later changed his mind when the Stock Market took a dive and he was blamed for calling it false news.
I don’t see the more than 100 countries affected by this virus blaming WHO, so who are these Albert Einstein and where are the getting their information?
Folks let’s stop farting around and “stay put” to avoid this dangerous virus. The UK PM learned the hard way how dangerous this COVID-19 is becoming. You know what I have noticed: The rich people are not exposed to the virus. They are staying home in the towers way above the virus path.
The Chinese are not to blame they were the unlucky ones. (if a meteor fell from the sky and infected people in china with a disease, would China be held responsible if the disease spreads? This is one more sign that the West is at war with China. Why? It’s obvious why.
Ann-Marie, I hope I am not been too familiar by addressing you by your first name, but I would like to apologise to you if the wording of my comments did not take into account the passionate feelings you have about the WHO and it’s undoubted shortcomings. I would like to take this opportunity to explain why I made those comments. I have been advised by other posters that my comments were due to a lack of research and knowledge, to those folks I will only say, that no one individual has access to the fountain of all knowledge, and although from their comments it can be inferred that they are well placed in the WHO organisation, and are privy to information that lesser mortals such as myself can never hope to emulate, I would beg to differ about their assessment of me and my limited abilities.
Let’s me start by giving a run down of the WHO which I believe to be based on facts, and not on an innate perception of my absolute conviction that I am sure of everything, because as they say “only a fool is ever sure”. The WHO is I believe, a subset of the U.N. and is funded by world governments and private subscriptions from organisations and individuals such as Bill Gates the Microsoft founder.
As far as I am aware, they are a advisory body and do not have powers of enforcement over member states. Simply put, they cannot force any member state to do anything that such a state believe is contrary to their interest as they per sieve it. That been said, they could have been more forceful in their dealings with the government of China as regards transparency, but ultimately would have to rely on the information given to them by that government as like the U.N. they are not in possession of armed forces to implement any decision. The WHO is not a body staffed by one section of the world community, but is made up of experts drawn from the USA, UK, China and other member states, so that bias can hardly be a term which logically apply here.
So let us firstly address the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. A pneumonia of unknown cause detected in China, was first reported to the WHO country office in that country on 31st December, 2019
2. The outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern on the 30th January, 2020
3. The WHO announced a new name for the Novel (new) Coronavirus disease, COVID-19 (more to follow on this aspect in later paragraph).
The Who’s policy on border closures, was that the organisation did not support it, as they considered such actions to be innefective in addressing the spread of the virus, and could be counter productive when world trade was taken into consideration amongst other reservations.
The Who’s policy on face masks largely supported by member states, was that outside of the medical context, and for those who were confirmed infected, the wearing of face masks conferred a false sense of protection against the virus as the commercially available models whilst offering protection against large droplets, such as that encountered in coughing and sneezing situations, could not protect against the airosolised virus particles which could permeate such masks as well as the eyes of the wearer. You are speaking to the converted as far as this is concerned, as I believe any protection, however inadequate is well worth it. As an adjunct to this, I would encourage people who have to go outside of their homes to sanitised all footwear as well as washing outer garments exposed to possible contamination before gathering with family members indoors.
As regards your comments as to why the virus was named COVID-19, and not named after where it supposedly originated from in China, as was done with EBOLA, MERS, ZIKA etcetera, but a article published on CN on January 22nd, 2016 ( all verifyable Pam Roskewich), The WHO issued best practices on how a virus should be named in the future so as not to stigmatize or negatively impact a region, animal, location etcetera where the virus originated from. These practices were outlined in Geneva on the 6th May, 2016 and was supported by scientists worldwide, and as such is not a nod to China’s sensibilities.
The Coronavirus was initially named 2019-n. Cov which was then replaced by SARS- COV2 and finally we have the name COVID-19 to denote the year of first appearance, and used interchangeably with the name Coronavirus.
According to the WHO, and they publickly declared that they have documentary proof of this, Taiwan, which does not have member status at the WHO owing to objections from China, requested clarification on the outbreak of COVID19 via email, this email according to the WHO did not declare any knowledge that Human to Human transmission was taking place, but, and this is addressed TO JOLLY GREEN, TRUTH SPEAKER ET AL, if you have alternative facts from your fountain of knowledge, and position of original data gleaned from your position in the inner circle and extensive research, please feel free to share, not from Whats app or Youtube, but actual facts devoid of opinions.
I searched for your study of the bus passengers, and found such a study which did not declare who were or were not wearing masks when the individual boarded and alighted from the bus, but reinforced your point that the virus when existing as a vapour can travel longer distances than the separation which we are asked to maintain in confined spaces. This however would spell the death knell for our mini buses in st Vincent even at a passenger load of nine persons. I did not believe that the study was a vigorous study because no information was given as to whether or not existing passengers who tested positive after the confirmed infected passenger left the bus were clear before getting on the bus and how did they trace them all not to mention when did they actually become infected, before or after boarding the bus.
I do have the layout of the passengers on the bus together with distances from passenger zero, furthest was 4.5m. Not all the passengers were infected which proves there are a lot of variables.
Again I reiterate that we should await a investigation of the WHO before becoming judge jury and executioner. Over to you professor Green and SPEAKER.