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> And I'm not excusing the WHO, their role has been borderline criminal at the beginning, and their reactions slow What do you mean by this? The WHO was practi

> And I'm not excusing the WHO, their role has been borderline criminal at the beginning, and their reactions slow What do you mean by this? The WHO was practically screaming at the top of its lungs all throughout February 2020 that countries were not taking the new coronavirus seriously enough. Just take this headline from 21 February 2020: "World must act fast to contain coronavirus: WHO's Tedros." > “Although the window of opportunity is narrowing to contain the outbreak, we still have a chance to contain it [...] If we don't, if we squander the opportunity, then there will be a serious problem on our hands” This was before Italy began quarantining towns in Lombardy (22 February 2020). The US was only testing hundreds of samples a day, and political figures from Trump to Pelosi were reassuring the public that everything was under control. Only it wasn't under control, but nobody in the US knew that, because contrary to the WHO's recommendations, the US was not conducting large-scale testing. Of all the countries and institutions involved in this pandemic, I think the WHO comes out looking pretty good in comparison. If the US and European countries had heeded the WHO warnings and followed its technical advice in February 2020, they could have fared far better in the first wave. 1. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who-idUSKBN20F2A1 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who-idUSKBN2...

Uberphallus 5y ago
21 Feb is hardly the beginning. Most epidemiologists worldwide were already nervous by early Feb. By early Feb this was the stance[0]. > World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday there was no need for measures that “unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade” >China’s delegate took the floor at the WHO Executive Board and denounced measures by “some countries” that have denied entry to people holding passports issued in Hubei province - at the center of the outbreak - and to deny visas and cancel flights. >“All these measures are seriously against recommendation by the WHO,” said Li Song, who is China’s ambassador for disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva. Unsurprisingly, the countries that best fared in pandemic terms are those which severely interfered with international travel, ironically including China. [0]https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who/who-chief-says-widespread-travel-bans-not-needed-to-beat-china-virus-idUKKBN1ZX1H3 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who/who-chie...
- DiogenesKynikos 5y ago
  The WHO's explicit mandate, given to it by the US and the other countries that wrote the International Health Regulations (2005), is to strongly discourage travel restrictions. The types of travel restrictions that the US and other countries implemented early on were nearly useless. Plenty of infected people got through, and because the US was not following the WHO's advice to test extensively in order to track the spread of the virus, the US was unaware of the growing outbreaks in places like NY. The US would have done far better if it had followed the WHO's advice, and instead of banning travelers from individual countries, had done everything possible to ramp up testing in January and February 2020. Travel restrictions can be effective, but only when they are extremely strict and backed up by extensive testing. China and other countries that successfully eliminated the virus did so not just by closing borders, but through a combination of strict lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions. You can see how important these other measures are by looking at what's happening in Guangdong, in Southern China, right now. Despite the border restrictions, there's a new outbreak, and the authorities are conducting mass testing, doing extensive contact tracing of every known case and imposing local lockdowns to try to quench it. I explained this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27342556 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27342556

Uberphallus 5y ago

21 Feb is hardly the beginning. Most epidemiologists worldwide were already nervous by early Feb. By early Feb this was the stance[0]. > World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday there was no need for measures that “unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade” >China’s delegate took the floor at the WHO Executive Board and denounced measures by “some countries” that have denied entry to people holding passports issued in Hubei province - at the center of the outbreak - and to deny visas and cancel flights. >“All these measures are seriously against recommendation by the WHO,” said Li Song, who is China’s ambassador for disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva. Unsurprisingly, the countries that best fared in pandemic terms are those which severely interfered with international travel, ironically including China. [0]https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who/who-chief-says-widespread-travel-bans-not-needed-to-beat-china-virus-idUKKBN1ZX1H3 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who/who-chie...

DiogenesKynikos 5y ago
The WHO's explicit mandate, given to it by the US and the other countries that wrote the International Health Regulations (2005), is to strongly discourage travel restrictions. The types of travel restrictions that the US and other countries implemented early on were nearly useless. Plenty of infected people got through, and because the US was not following the WHO's advice to test extensively in order to track the spread of the virus, the US was unaware of the growing outbreaks in places like NY. The US would have done far better if it had followed the WHO's advice, and instead of banning travelers from individual countries, had done everything possible to ramp up testing in January and February 2020. Travel restrictions can be effective, but only when they are extremely strict and backed up by extensive testing. China and other countries that successfully eliminated the virus did so not just by closing borders, but through a combination of strict lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions. You can see how important these other measures are by looking at what's happening in Guangdong, in Southern China, right now. Despite the border restrictions, there's a new outbreak, and the authorities are conducting mass testing, doing extensive contact tracing of every known case and imposing local lockdowns to try to quench it. I explained this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27342556 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27342556