WHO boss critical of bigger nations

LAUNCHING the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response to evaluate the world’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus justifiably criticised bigger nations for their lack of leadership in dealing with the pandemic. Obviously, he had his sights trained on the United States, which is in the process of pulling out of WHO purely because President Trump would rather shoot the messenger again, and there are other countries also only interested in looking after No 1.

The director-general said that the greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself: ‘Rather, it is the lack of leadership and solidarity at the global and national levels. That is why I said each and every individual should reflect.

‘This is a tragedy that is forcing us to miss many of our friends and lose many lives. And we cannot defeat this pandemic as a divided world.’

He described the Covid-19 pandemic as a test of global solidarity and global leadership: ‘My hope is that the defining crisis of our age will likewise remind all people that the best way forward – and the only way forward – is together.’