COVID-19 pandemic could be WHO's Chernobyl moment, says review panel

A co-chair of independent review panel investigating the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic said that the virus could cause much-needed reform at the World Health Organization (WHO), akin to what happened in UN’s nuclear agency in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.

The panel also said the WHO is under-powered, under-funded, and requires reforms to allow it to respond quickly to future outbreaks.

"We are not here to assign blame, but to make concrete recommendations to help the world respond faster and better in future," the panel's co-chair, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said during a media briefing on Tuesday.

The report put out by the panel on Monday claimed that Chinese authorities should have enforced countermeasures in January to control the initial outbreak. In addition, it criticised WHO for not declaring an international emergency until January 30.

"While member states turn to the WHO for leadership, they have kept it under-powered and under-resourced to do the job expected of it," Sirleaf added. Sirleaf also claimed that the WHO “is reformable”.

Governments around the world - from the US, Australia, and EU have called for changes in the WHO for its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year, the US stopped its funding for the WHO, with many accusing the agency o siding with China during the onset of the pandemic. The WHO has denied these charges.

When the report was being discussed, the organisation’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the WHO Executive Board that it was “committed to accountability”, and was open to change.

"Is that this (Chernobyl) moment for WHO and the global health system?," former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said, adding that WHO member states "are going to have to face up to this".