WHO – Between public health and global politics

WHO – Between public health and global politics

Context:

➡The World Health Organisation has been leading the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic from the front has been subject to both recognition and criticism

WHO genesis

• WHO was established in the year 1948 COVID-19with 61 members on board.
• The goal of WHO was to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.
• The WHO got off on a positive note, with the organization playing a pivotal role in eliminating smallpox from the world. WHO’s work on malaria and neglected tropical diseases, among others, is well appreciated.
• Global organizations are often at the mercy of the constituent countries, it cannot be more powerful than what the funding countries would allow it to be.
• Case in point being the former US President Donald Trump announcement to halt the funding the US provides to WHO, he reasoned it by saying the WHO was mismanaging the spread.
• This announcement came at a time when the global caseload had approached 2 million, including over 1 lakh deaths; the US has seen the most cases (over 6 lakh) and deaths (over 26,000).

COVID-19 scenario

• The focus of attention was on the World Health Organization (WHO) and its efforts to tackle the global health crisis with the onset of COVID-19 pandemic.
• It is funded by a large number of countries, philanthropic organisations, United Nations organisations etc
• The countries or member states pay their assessed contributions (countries’ membership dues), and voluntary contributions from member states and other partners.
• The WHO has seen a lot of ups and downs ever since it came into existence and faced a lot of criticism, the scrutiny it has been subjected to has been intense during the COVID-19 era.
• However, its relevance is underscored when it is consistently called upon by countries to help tide over the pandemic.
• WHO possess an army of specialists and access to information and best practices across the world, it remains the world’s best chance not only to write out prescriptions but also maintain a vigil over inequities and access to health care services.
• WHO vision is to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable. Its goal is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being.
• Universal health coverage and health emergencies continue to be its two-pronged focus areas. The WHO works through its country offices that report to six regional offices.

Immunisation drive.

• WHO enjoyed considerable success in overseeing smallpox elimination and that was based on its efforts to intensify the immunisation campaign globally.
• Smallpox, a disease caused by a virus, was one of the most devastating diseases known to humanity before it was eradicated.
• Edward Jenner had developed a vaccine way back in 1796, but vaccination received a boost with the WHO prioritising immunisation.
• Smallpox is an example that underlines the importance of the organization in furthering global health. Its work on malaria, and neglected tropical diseases, among others, also are recognised.
• The failure of WHO to anticipate and identify Ebola in the 1990s, and delayed response to HIV/AIDS, prompted the WHO to roll out the Global Public Health Intelligence Network in 1997, to predict potential epidemics using the information on the Internet, and function as an early warning alert.
• With the growing use of the Internet, such a system gains better traction, and in 2000, it was supplemented with the Global Outbreak Alert Response Network (GOARN).
• The criticism that has been meted out to WHO with regards handling of COVID-19 has been on incidences, like the WHO’s Director-General saying that it was early to declare a public health emergency of international concern and then a week later, the WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern, the highest level of alarm. The world had at that point of time had 98 cases and with no casualties in 18 countries outside China. Four countries had evidence (eight cases) of human-to-human transmission outside China.
• Another incident was the WHO going on record saying that it does not recommend any broader restrictions on travel or trade and just recommend exit screening at airports as part of a comprehensive set of containment measures.
• And the WHO Director General’s lavish praise for China in handling the crisis also came in for criticism, especially when Wuhan was the epicentre of the crisis and yet it took so long for China to report it and it still was not very transparent about the disease and its spread.
• Later, changing statements on the use of masks, hydroxychloroquine and even the mode of transmission, by the WHO, has raised eyebrows about their competency.
• However, the criticism may sound justified, but it has to be taken into account the nature of the functioning of the WHO and the nature of the beast, or the virus, in this case.
• The WHO works with information shared with it by nations, China, in this case. It is bound by these limitations, as also its innate inability to police nations or have them conform with recommendations.
• Representatives of the WHO also repeatedly mentioned, in their defence, that they were guided by scientific principles, backed by solid evidence, and in an evolving epidemic, instructions must necessarily be dynamic.
• The WHO issued a consolidated package in march when the cases were proliferating across the globe, guidelines covering the preparedness, readiness and response actions for four different transmission scenarios: no cases, sporadic cases, clusters of cases and community transmission.
• It deployed its human resources, the huge body of accumulated knowledge to aid the world handle its most unprecedented health crises of all time.

Solidarity trial

• The WHO and its partners launched the SOLIDARITY trial, an international clinical trial that aims to generate robust data from around the world to find the most effective treatments for COVID-19.
• It was designed to accelerate the process of conducting randomised clinical trials which normally take years to design, conduct, and see the results of.
• The organisation also worked with the European Commission and multiple partners to launch the ACT Accelerator, to ensure that once a vaccine is available, it’s available to everyone — especially those who are at the greatest risk.

Conclusion

The battle against COVID-19 is still ongoing, while vaccination has begun, challenges continue in monitoring this massive immunisation exercise, and ensuring that everyone has access to the recommended doses.

The WHO will also have the responsibility to counter the fatigue that has set in after prolonged efforts to test, quarantine and treat COVID-19.

This is a very critical juncture in the fight against the pandemic as the health workers are stretched and oxygen supplies are fast depleting and currently at a dangerously low level in some countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic that has over 93 million cases and over 2 million deaths so far might just have cemented the role, relevance of the body.

                                                                                                                                    Thank you