Financial Times
WHO struggles to prove itself in the face of Covid-19
President Harry Truman signed the US up to the World Health Organization in 1948 with the “hope and expectation” it would “help liberate men everywhere from the overhanging dread of preventable disease”.
This week President Donald Trump moved to rip the US out of the UN body over its performance during the coronavirus pandemic — and the WHO announced an independent review into how it and others handled the crisis.
“The governance is problematic in the sense that it is a multilateral institution whose legitimacy is based on its member states — they have a lot of power and influence on the decision making,” said Jennifer Prah Ruger, professor of health equity, economics and policy at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s in all of our interests to have an independent institution that tells the truth. We want that information for the common good.”