Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
WHO Director's Urgent Solidarity Plea To Global Leaders: 'How Is It Difficult For Humans To Unite?'
NPR: WHO Chief Says Lack Of Unity Is A Bigger Threat Than Coronavirus
The COVID-19 pandemic is testing the world – and humanity is failing because of a lack of leadership and unity, the head of the World Health Organization declared in a passionate speech Thursday. "How is it difficult for humans to unite and fight a common enemy that is killing people indiscriminately?" WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked at a briefing in Geneva, his voice rising with emotion. (Chappell, 7/9)
CNN: WHO Director Tedros Blasts 'Lack Of Leadership' And Calls For Global Unity As Coronavirus Cases Mount Worldwide
The director-general of the World Health Organization has condemned a "lack of leadership" in fighting the coronavirus pandemic and made an emotional plea for global unity, as cases soar in multiple countries and the world struggles to contain the devastating virus more than six months after it was first identified. "My friends, make no mistake: The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a passionate speech in Geneva on Thursday. "Rather, it's the lack of leadership and solidarity at the global and national levels." (Picheta, 7/10)
NBC News: U.S. Exit From WHO Will Jeopardize Global Fight Against COVID-19, Polio, Other Diseases, Experts Say
President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization will damage global efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic as well other deadly diseases such as polio, tuberculosis and HIV, public health experts say. The WHO, which was created by the U.S. and other world powers in the wake of World War II, plays a unique role in collecting and disseminating vital information to foreign governments on infectious diseases, coordinating vaccine research and providing crucial medical advice and equipment to low-income countries, experts said. (DeLuce, 7/8)
In related news —
Stat: WHO Launches Review Of International Pandemic Response
The World Health Organization announced an independent review of the international response to the Covid-19 pandemic on Thursday, an action the organization’s member states tasked it with earlier this year. Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand, will lead the review, the WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced in Geneva. (Branswell, 7/9)
AP: WHO Experts To Visit China To Plan COVID-19 Investigation
Two World Health Organization experts will spend the next two days in the Chinese capital to lay the groundwork for a larger mission to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. An animal health expert and an epidemiologist will meet Chinese counterparts in Beijing on Saturday and Sunday to fix the “scope and terms of reference” for a WHO-led international mission aimed at learning how the virus jumped from animals to humans, an agency statement said. (McNeil, 7/10)
