EU calls for independent probe of the WHO’s pandemic response

The European Union and other countries have called for an independent evaluation of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) response to the coronavirus pandemic “to review experience gained and lessons learned”.

The resolution has the support of more than half of the WHO’s member countries and will be discussed this week at the decision-making body of the UN health agency, being held virtually this year.

The proposal is intended to initiate “a stepwise process of impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the WHO’s efforts to coordinate the international response to Covid-19, including the functioning of international health law and its actions within the greater UN health system.

The move comes amid Australia’s call for an independent inquiry into the origins of the pandemic and the WHO’s response to it — and after US president Donald Trump’s repeated accusations that the WHO helped China cover up the extent of the initial Covid-19 outbreak.

Trump has also called for an immediate halt to all US funding to the UN health agency.

The EU resolution proposes that the independent evaluation should be initiated “at the earliest appropriate moment” and should, among other issues, examine “the actions of the WHO and their timelines pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic”.

The WHO announced the coronavirus outbreak to be a global health emergency on 30 January, its highest level of alert. In the following weeks, the WHO warned countries there was a narrowing “window of opportunity” to prevent the virus from spreading globally.

WHO officials, however, repeatedly described the transmission of the virus as “limited” and said it was not as transmissible as flu; experts have since said Covid-19 spreads even faster.

It declared the outbreak to be a pandemic on 11 March, after the virus had killed thousands globally and sparked epidemics in South Korea, Italy, Iran and elsewhere.