WHO panel urges governments to share experience on ‘effective fight’ against Covid-19

A World Health Organization (WHO) panel has called on governments to pool their experiences in tackling the novel coronavirus, and so pass on the best methods they have discovered or developed in fighting the pandemic.

Former New Zealand PM Helen Clark, co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, said member states had been invited to make contributions to the group’s work.

A “one size fits all” approach to the pandemic will not be appropriate, she added, but countries will still find it useful to “share experiences, and to consider policy alternatives and solutions developed by others.”

The panel also wants to establish an “accurate chronology” of the events around the emergence of Covid-19, and to review the different containment strategies deployed in various countries, Clark said.

Another co-chair, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, said “some countries have dealt well with the virus, and we should be asking what we can learn from them.”

The WHO said on October 30 that its team of experts had held a first virtual meeting with their Chinese counterparts to investigate the origin of the novel coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year.

However, Washington claimed on Tuesday that the terms under which the WHO-led team of experts would work were not “transparently negotiated” or in line with the mandate agreed by member states.

The Trump administration has halted US funding for the WHO, criticizing its response to the pandemic and “pro-China” position. President-elect Joe Biden plans to keep the US in the UN health organization.

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