Critically examine the role of WHO in providing global health security during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines Global public health security as “the activities required to minimise the danger and impact of acute public health events that endanger the collective health of populations living across geographical regions and international boundaries.

The WHO’s weak response to China’s mishandling of the COVID-19 outbreak has questioned the WHO’s credibility.

1. The USA alleged the objections by WHO ‘to travel bans from China and termed it ‘a horrible, tragic mistake.’

2. Since China acceded to the UN in 1971, it has periodically blocked Taiwan’s WHO membership on the grounds that the democratically governed island is part of China.

3. It struggles to set its own priorities because many of its donors give it money earmarked for specificnprojects.

4. The organisation’s Lyon-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) issued confusing warnings on everything from the air we breathe to the meat we eat to the phones we use.

5. Too Many Chiefs: The WHO is unique among UN agencies because its structure includes six regional offices, each with its own director elected by regional member states. The flaws in the structure were evident in the Ebola crisis. 

However, WHO played an active role too like:

1. Ensuring vital supplies reach frontline health workers

2. Training and mobilising health workers.

3. Helping the countries in the development of a vaccine.

4. Important role of WHO in finding the roots of the virus in China.

5. Coordination among nations for better information dissemination.

6. Doing research on its genome sequencing.

WHO should bring the world’s scientists and global health professionals together to accelerate the research and development process, and develop new norms and standards to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and help care for those affected.