Versión Español
Spanish – The World Health Organization (WHO) has played a dismal role in developing strategies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. From the outset, the organization has been secretive about the spread of the disease, complicit with the Chinese regime to the point of blaming the world for the management of the disease. Its actions have been marked by contradictions. Today was no exception.
In an interview with the Spectator, David Nabarro, special envoy on COVID-19 in Europe, explained the following: “We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus.”
These statements caused a stir and came after nine months of intense struggle by world leaders to contain the spread of a virus that has already infected more than 35 million people and killed more than a million.
Now, Nabarro, on behalf of the WHO, indicated that “lockdowns have just one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer.”
Poverty might double
The representative also warned that poverty in the world could double by next year, and lockdowns would be one of the main reasons that would lead people down this path.
Furthermore, he called on world leaders to “stop using lockdown as your primary method of control” to make way for other measures that would lower the disease transmission curve.
“We may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition because children are not getting meals in school and their parents, in poor families, are not able to afford it. This is a terrible, ghastly global catastrophe,” Nabarro acknowledged.
Trump and his victory against lockdown
The WHO statement on Monday was welcomed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who was critical of lockdowns as a method of containing the spread of COVID-19.
Trump echoed – and boasted with good reason – the body’s pronouncement: “The World Health Organization just admitted that I was right. Lockdowns are killing countries all over the world. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.”
The World Health Organization just admitted that I was right. Lockdowns are killing countries all over the world. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. Open up your states, Democrat governors. Open up New York. A long battle, but they finally did the right thing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2020
With this rallying cry, Trump demanded that the Democratic governors open up their states to free the population from the lockdown that has resulted in serious economic damage wherever it has been implemented.
The inconsistencies of the WHO
The organization and its diffuse system of recommendations have been the subject of various controversies. Its contradictions in the handling of the pandemic remain latent.
The initial argument was that the possibility of the virus spreading out of Wuhan, where it originated, was scarce.
However, the virus spread and the first cases were recorded outside of China. Europe was the next to be hit by the virus, and today, America is the primary continent affected, with the United States leading the way.
Today’s figures disproved the WHO’s statements earlier this year that there was no conclusive evidence that the coronavirus was transmitted from person to person as contagion progressively spread around the world.
Increasingly, there were trade-offs in the management of the pandemic. The WHO issued a preliminary report on the first four months of the pandemic.
The document states that the international emergency declared on January 30 by the WHO “did not motivate countries to implement public health measures for the COVID-19.” In other words, the agency blames the States -and not the failure of their communication skills- for the numbers that today continue to swell the lists of infected people.
Collateral damage from COVID-19
The crisis that caused the pandemic has hurt the labor market. Lockdowns and all contagion prevention measures have brought several Latin American and Caribbean nations to the brink of economic collapse.
The reports from various international organizations that have provided their conclusions regarding the economic consequences of COVID-19 are increasingly pessimistic despite the progressive openings in certain areas.
However, the damage to the region is evident in the low level of employment in the region today. In this regard, the International Labor Organization (ILO) released its so-called “Labor Panorama,” a dossier with information from nine countries that represent more than 80% of the economically active population in the area.
The results are not promising. The ILO states that during this crisis, “34 million workers lost their jobs (some temporarily),” and the employment rate reached only 51.1% in the first half of the year, representing a sharp reduction of 5.4% compared to the same period in 2019.
