The WHO chartered something called the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and yesterday they released their second report. It's not too long, so I read the whole thing to judge for myself how bad the headlines are. Here's my summary of its contents:

  • The whole world was totally unprepared

  • Measurements like the Global Health Security Index turned out to be bullshit

  • Social media has created an infodemic

  • Inequalities everywhere have been exacerbated

  • Poorer countries are unjustly being left without access to PPE and vaccines

  • Precarious and informal workers in wealthy countries are suffering disproportionately

  • "Public health containment measures should have been implemented immediately in any country with a likely case. They were not."

  • Some countries (unnamed) sacrificed public health and lives to make the line go up

  • Overall, the Asia-Pacific countries and the Africa CDC have been doing a decent job

  • The global supply chain is weak

  • The WHO should have used the term "pandemic" sooner than March

  • The WHO is underfunded and forced to waste too much time fundraising

Also buried in the report is this single criticism of China:

Public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January.

Guess which parts the Western media chose to focus on?

Business Insider: An elite panel of world leaders has called out China for its bungled coronavirus response

CNN: China and WHO acted too slowly to contain Covid-19, says independent panel

Forbes: China, World Health Organization Failed To Act Quickly At The Start Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Report Finds

The Week: Independent panel slams China and WHO over Covid-19 response

AP: China, WHO should have acted quicker to stop pandemic

Sydney Morning Herald: 'Signal was ignored': Independent inquiry criticises China and WHO over COVID

Seattle Times: Panel: China, WHO should have acted quicker to stop pandemic

Remember when the imperialist media was criticizing China for acting too aggressively and authoritarian with its lockdowns? Lmao

  • star_wraith [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    All this imperialist media claiming China should have "done more" at the start of the outbreak... I'm really looking forward to the next time we get something big like COVID-19 only this time it comes from a factory chicken farm in Arkansas. The US government will do nothing other than try and cover it up as much as possible and doing virtually nothing about it once they can't cover it up any more; and the same imperialist media saying "China should have done more" will say "there's nothing we could have done to stop this" when the tables are turned on the US.