'..Amir Attaran, a professor of law and epidemiology at the University of Ottawa and a frequent W.H.O. critic, called the declaration “inexcusably late.” The committee’s reasoning that it lacked enough scientific evidence to declare an emergency last week was “balderdash,” he added.
..
Experts in the United States have complained of spotty epidemiological information from China.''The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on Thursday as the coronavirus outbreak spread well beyond China, where it emerged last month.
The move reversed the organization’s decision just a week ago to hold off such a declaration. Since then, there have been thousands of new cases in China and clear evidence of human-to-human transmission in several other countries, including the United States.
All of which warranted a reconsideration by the W.H.O.’s emergency committee, officials said.
..
..Amir Attaran, a professor of law and epidemiology at the University of Ottawa and a frequent W.H.O. critic, called the declaration “inexcusably late.” The committee’s reasoning that it lacked enough scientific evidence to declare an emergency last week was “balderdash,” he added.
“W.H.O. is paralyzed for the same political reasons that ruined its scientific judgment in SARS, Ebola and Zika,” he said. “Borders are closed, aircraft grounded and ships anchored as W.H.O. mutely dithers over whether or not to declare an emergency.”
“Events have comprehensively overtaken them, proving their uselessness yet again,” he added.
..
Experts in the United States have complained of spotty epidemiological information from China.
Within China, some medical experts have questioned their country’s response, arguing that local officials should have imposed stricter travel restrictions before the virus spilled out of Wuhan. The country has now confirmed cases in every province and region.
Residents have complained that local authorities kept mum about the outbreak’s severity — initially insisting that there was no evidence of person-to-person transmission outside Wuhan — but admitted the truth after press reports in Hong Kong.
..
Dr. Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and one of the discoverers of the Ebola virus and the presence of AIDS in Africa, agreed with the W.H.O.’s emergency declaration but felt the process was flawed.
“It is time for the W.H.O. to change its all-or-nothing, binary approach” to declaring an emergency, Dr. Piot said. “In every emergency, there is a spectrum of alert levels.”
Dr. Tedros expressed the same frustration at a news conference on Wednesday, suggesting that the agency might need to switch to a graduated “green-yellow-red" system.'
- New York Times,
W.H.O. Declares Global Emergency as Wuhan Coronavirus Spreads, January 30, 2020
Context(WARNING!! WARNING!! GLOBAL EMERGENCY!!) - '..we need to plan for chance that “CONTAINMENT OF THIS EPIDEMIC ISN’T POSSIBLE”.' - Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding(WHO failure) CNN - '..the World Health Organization's decision to hold off on declaring the outbreak "a public health emergency of international concern" is baffling..' January 26, 2020Mongolia shuts universities, border crossings to halt [2019-nCoV] spread