4 ms·

Bottom line: How is it the WHO did not declare a pandemic until Mar 11?

perl4ever 6y ago
I don't know, but everybody panicked about the same time and came to the conclusion it was a crisis right about on Friday the 13th. I personally was worrying about why a lot of authorities were dragging their feet that week, but none of them were the WHO. Maybe take an inventory of where you were and what you were doing and thinking that week?
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  > I don't know, but everybody panicked about the same time and came to the conclusion it was a crisis right about on Friday the 13th. The sudden switch was fascinating to me. One theory is Tom Hanks getting it coupled with the NBA shutting down on the 11th turned it from abstract to very concrete for a lot of folks: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-12/tom-hanks-and-the-nba-finally-wake-america-up-to-the-coronavirus https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-12/tom-hanks...
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    Passing a threshold doesn't happen because something happened at exactly that point; it happens because an accumulation of things reaches a tipping point. For instance, with my workplace there were (unseen) negotiations with the union on how to respond. For at least a week or more, us peons were saying (or I was to myself) what the hell is the governor doing? Well, in all fairness, lots of people were doing things behind the scenes.
    - ceejayoz 6y ago
      I'm saying "celebrities are getting hit now" pushed a lot of folks past that tipping point. If a random person wins the lottery, no one blinks an eye. If Tom Hanks and the NBA win the lottery, people start wondering if a) it's more common than they thought to win the lottery or b) the lottery is rigged, because statistically celebs should have a low chance of winning it.
dashundchen 6y ago
If that is somehow supposed prove the WHO mishandled the pandemic, then the administration who is withdrawing from the WHO has been absolutely criminal in their handling of this disease. February 28: "When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” — Trump, at a coronavirus task force press briefing March 5: “Gallup just gave us the highest rating ever for the way we are handling the CoronaVirus situation. The April 2009-10 Swine Flu, where nearly 13,000 people died in the U.S., was poorly handled.” — Trump tweet. March 6: "Anybody that wants a test can get a test. That’s what the bottom line is.” — Trump, while visiting CDC headquarters in Atlanta. This was false. In fact, at this time testing capacity was about 75,000 nationally, according to the CDC. March 10: "This was unexpected. … And it hit the world. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” — Trump, to reporters at the U.S. Capitol https://www.npr.org/2020/04/21/837348551/timeline-what-trump-has-said-and-done-about-the-coronavirus https://www.npr.org/2020/04/21/837348551/timeline-what-trump...
masswerk 6y ago
Compare the timeline at https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/27-04-2020-who-timeline---covid-19 https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/27-04-2020-who-timeline... Here's a shortened version: 1 January 2020 – After Wuhan Municipal Health Commission report of a cluster of cases of pneumonia (31 Dec. 2019) WHO sets up Incident Management Support Team (...) putting the organization on an emergency footing for dealing with the outbreak 5 January 2020 – WHO publishes first Disease Outbreak News on the new virus 10 January 2020 – WHO publishes guidelines with advice to all countries on how to detect, test and manage potential cases, based on what was known at the time 12 January 2020 – China publishes genetic sequence of COVID-19 13 January 2020 – Thailand confirms cases 14 January 2020 – WHO warns of limited human-to-human transmission 20-21 January 2020 – WHO field visit to Wuhan 22 January 2020 – WHO mission in Wuhan issues statement on evidence of human-to-human transmission 22-23 January 2020 – WHO boards assess whether the outbreak constituted a public health emergency of international concern, no consensus is reached, the Emergency Committee (EC) eventually settles to reconvene within 10 days after receiving more information 30 January 2020 – The EC reconvenes and consensus is reached, advises the Director-General that the outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The Director-General accepted the recommendation and declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (2019-nCoV) a PHEIC. 3 February 2020 – WHO releases the international community's Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan 11-12 February 2020 – WHO convened a Research and Innovation Forum on COVID-19 16-24 February 2020 – WHO-China Joint mission on fact finding trip to China, eventually publishes a report on the findings. 11 March 2020 – WHO characterises COVID-19 as a pandemic. –––––– Of note may be here the last 10 days of January: No scientific consensus was reached regarding a PHEIC on 22-23 January, but was eventually declared on 30 Jan. as more data became available. (The first assessment was just a week after human-to-human transmission was confirmed.) A first response plan was published only 3 days thereafter. However, to declare a pandemic, this required still additional data, international conferences requiring some lead time for planning and scheduling, time consuming fact finding missions, reports…

I don't know, but everybody panicked about the same time and came to the conclusion it was a crisis right about on Friday the 13th. I personally was worrying about why a lot of authorities were dragging their feet that week, but none of them were the WHO. Maybe take an inventory of where you were and what you were doing and thinking that week?

ceejayoz 6y ago
> I don't know, but everybody panicked about the same time and came to the conclusion it was a crisis right about on Friday the 13th. The sudden switch was fascinating to me. One theory is Tom Hanks getting it coupled with the NBA shutting down on the 11th turned it from abstract to very concrete for a lot of folks: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-12/tom-hanks-and-the-nba-finally-wake-america-up-to-the-coronavirus https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-12/tom-hanks...
- perl4ever 6y ago
  Passing a threshold doesn't happen because something happened at exactly that point; it happens because an accumulation of things reaches a tipping point. For instance, with my workplace there were (unseen) negotiations with the union on how to respond. For at least a week or more, us peons were saying (or I was to myself) what the hell is the governor doing? Well, in all fairness, lots of people were doing things behind the scenes.
  - ceejayoz 6y ago
    I'm saying "celebrities are getting hit now" pushed a lot of folks past that tipping point. If a random person wins the lottery, no one blinks an eye. If Tom Hanks and the NBA win the lottery, people start wondering if a) it's more common than they thought to win the lottery or b) the lottery is rigged, because statistically celebs should have a low chance of winning it.

dashundchen 6y ago

If that is somehow supposed prove the WHO mishandled the pandemic, then the administration who is withdrawing from the WHO has been absolutely criminal in their handling of this disease. February 28: "When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” — Trump, at a coronavirus task force press briefing March 5: “Gallup just gave us the highest rating ever for the way we are handling the CoronaVirus situation. The April 2009-10 Swine Flu, where nearly 13,000 people died in the U.S., was poorly handled.” — Trump tweet. March 6: "Anybody that wants a test can get a test. That’s what the bottom line is.” — Trump, while visiting CDC headquarters in Atlanta. This was false. In fact, at this time testing capacity was about 75,000 nationally, according to the CDC. March 10: "This was unexpected. … And it hit the world. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” — Trump, to reporters at the U.S. Capitol https://www.npr.org/2020/04/21/837348551/timeline-what-trump-has-said-and-done-about-the-coronavirus https://www.npr.org/2020/04/21/837348551/timeline-what-trump...

masswerk 6y ago

Compare the timeline at https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/27-04-2020-who-timeline---covid-19 https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/27-04-2020-who-timeline... Here's a shortened version: 1 January 2020 – After Wuhan Municipal Health Commission report of a cluster of cases of pneumonia (31 Dec. 2019) WHO sets up Incident Management Support Team (...) putting the organization on an emergency footing for dealing with the outbreak 5 January 2020 – WHO publishes first Disease Outbreak News on the new virus 10 January 2020 – WHO publishes guidelines with advice to all countries on how to detect, test and manage potential cases, based on what was known at the time 12 January 2020 – China publishes genetic sequence of COVID-19 13 January 2020 – Thailand confirms cases 14 January 2020 – WHO warns of limited human-to-human transmission 20-21 January 2020 – WHO field visit to Wuhan 22 January 2020 – WHO mission in Wuhan issues statement on evidence of human-to-human transmission 22-23 January 2020 – WHO boards assess whether the outbreak constituted a public health emergency of international concern, no consensus is reached, the Emergency Committee (EC) eventually settles to reconvene within 10 days after receiving more information 30 January 2020 – The EC reconvenes and consensus is reached, advises the Director-General that the outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The Director-General accepted the recommendation and declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (2019-nCoV) a PHEIC. 3 February 2020 – WHO releases the international community's Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan 11-12 February 2020 – WHO convened a Research and Innovation Forum on COVID-19 16-24 February 2020 – WHO-China Joint mission on fact finding trip to China, eventually publishes a report on the findings. 11 March 2020 – WHO characterises COVID-19 as a pandemic. –––––– Of note may be here the last 10 days of January: No scientific consensus was reached regarding a PHEIC on 22-23 January, but was eventually declared on 30 Jan. as more data became available. (The first assessment was just a week after human-to-human transmission was confirmed.) A first response plan was published only 3 days thereafter. However, to declare a pandemic, this required still additional data, international conferences requiring some lead time for planning and scheduling, time consuming fact finding missions, reports…