As the numbers of infected and dead grows around the world, Al Jazeera asked the question “Is the WHO mishandling the coronavirus response?”
More and more countries are reporting cases of the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization is worried that some of the new infections appear to have no direct link to China, where the outbreak was first reported in December.
New deaths have been reported in Iran and Italy, and the number of infected people has doubled in South Korea.
The head of the WHO is warning the window of opportunity to contain the virus globally is narrowing.
The UN agency has been criticised for being slow to act on this epidemic, as well as previous health crises.
Should the WHO change its approach?
Presenter: Nastasya Tay
Guests:
Margaret Harris – Spokeswoman for the World Health Organization
Peter Hotez – Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine
Muhammad Munir – Lecturer in Biomedicine at Lancaster University
Al Jazeera YouTube Channel
WHO is short for World Health Organization.
This story was published on February 22 2020, by Al Jazeera’s “Inside Story” show.