‘Time for self-reflection’: WHO sets up independent panel to review its handling of pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that it was setting up an independent panel to review its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the response by governments.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf have agreed to head the panel and choose its members, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He was speaking at a virtual meeting with representatives of the WHO’s 194 member states.

“This is a time for self-reflection,” Tedros said. WHO member states in May unanimously called for an evaluation of the global response to the pandemic.

The WHO said on Tuesday that its experts would travel to China on the weekend to prepare a study of the origins of the novel coronavirus and how it jumped from animals to humans. “The best place to start is clearly where the disease emerged in humans first,” said Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies program.