{"id":247643,"date":"2021-05-12T13:17:11","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T10:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/ten-key-moments-in-whos-covid-19-response\/"},"modified":"2021-05-12T13:17:11","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T10:17:11","slug":"ten-key-moments-in-whos-covid-19-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ten-key-moments-in-whos-covid-19-response\/","title":{"rendered":"#Ten key moments in WHO’s COVID-19 response"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Ten key moments in WHO’s COVID-19 response<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Here are 10 key moments in the World Health Organization’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, following the publication Wednesday of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response’s report:\n <\/p>\n

First alert<\/b><\/p>\n

The WHO office in China picks up a press release referring to cases of “viral pneumonia” on the website of the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on December 31, 2019. <\/p>\n

WHO’s epidemic intelligence service sees a media<\/a> report on the international epidemic watch system ProMED about the same cluster of cases of “pneumonia of unknown cause” in Wuhan.<\/p>\n

Human-to-human transmission signs<\/b><\/p>\n

WHO says there is evidence of the virus passing between people on January 21, 2020.<\/p>\n

“It is now very clear from the latest information that there is at least some human-to-human transmission,” its Western Pacific branch writes on Twitter following a field mission to Wuhan.<\/p>\n

The WHO says the next day that more analysis is needed to understand the “full extent of human-to-human transmission”.<\/p>\n

Emergency declared<\/b><\/p>\n

WHO declares a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, sounding its highest alert.<\/p>\n

No deaths have yet been confirmed outside China, but there were 82 confirmed cases in 18 other countries.<\/p>\n

Disease named COVID-19<\/b><\/p>\n

WHO names the new disease COVID-19 on February 11.<\/p>\n

WHO had earlier called it “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease” while China used the name “novel coronavirus pneumonia”.<\/p>\n

‘Pandemic’ first used<\/b><\/p>\n

WHO describes COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11 with more than 100 countries reporting cases.<\/p>\n

WHO director-general<\/a> Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns of the “alarming levels of spread and severity” and “alarming levels of inaction”.<\/p>\n

Facemasks recommendation<\/b><\/p>\n

WHO changes its advice to recommend facemasks where virus transmission is widespread and physical distancing difficult on June 5.<\/p>\n

More than two months later, the WHO says children aged 12 and over should follow the same mask guidelines as adults.<\/p>\n

Airborne transmission<\/b><\/p>\n

WHO points to “emerging evidence” that the virus might spread by air further than previously thought on July 7.<\/p>\n

First vaccine app<\/a>roved<\/b><\/p>\n

The WHO gives emergency use listing to the first vaccine, from Pfizer-BioNTech, on December 31.<\/p>\n

AstraZeneca COVID-19 jabs gets WHO approval on February 15, 2021; Johnson & Johnson on March 12; Moderna on April 30; and Sinopharm on May 7.<\/p>\n

Origins investigation<\/b><\/p>\n

A joint report from a team of international experts and Chinese scientists, into the origins of COVID-19, becomes public on March 29, 2021.<\/p>\n

The team, which spent four weeks in Wuhan in early 2021, claim in their report that it is “likely to very likely” that COVID-19 reached humans through an intermediary animal, while all but ruling out a laboratory leak incident.<\/p>\n

Pandemic response panel<\/b><\/p>\n

The WHO-commissioned Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response issues its findings on May 12 after an eight-month investigation. It says the catastrophic scale of COVID-19 could have been prevented had the warning signs been heeded.<\/p>\n

The report blames a “toxic cocktail” of bad decisions, dithering and poor coordination, says the WHO could have sounded the alarm sooner, and urges rich countries to donate a billion vaccine doses by September.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news<\/a> on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Ten key moments in WHO’s COVID-19 response (2021, May 12)
\n retrieved 12 May 2021
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2021-05-ten-key-moments-covid-response.html<\/p>\n

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