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18 May 2020updated 06 Oct 2020 9:45am

EU calls for independent assessment of WHO’s coronavirus response

By Samuel Horti

The European Union, along with other nations, has called for an independent assessment of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) response to the coronavirus crisis.

The assessment would “review experience gained and lessons learned” and should start “at the earliest appropriate moment”. 

The EU resolution has the backing of more than half of WHO member states, and will be debated this week by the WHO’s decision-making body.

The EU also called for a global investigation into the origins and spread of Covid-19, “to identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population”.

Australia and the US have been among the countries calling for an independent inquiry into both the WHO’s response to the early stages of the pandemic and the origins of the virus. 

Last month, Lawrence Freedman, emeritus professor of war studies at King’s College London, wrote about how the WHO’s failure to challenge China over coronavirus cost the world dearly in a piece for the New Statesman.

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