EXCLUSIVE. At the annual meeting of the Executive Board, held on February 3-8, 2020, WHO talked about COVID for only 90 minutes during five days, yet increased the travel entitlements of its members to 500 euros per day

• None of the 39 documents, decisions (10) and resolutions (29) adopted by the Executive Board between February 3-8 this year referred to COVID-19! 
• At that moment, there were 17,238 cases recorded in China and 151 outside China, in 23 countries, and WHO itself had declared COVID ”a public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC)
• The Executive Board approved instead, among other adopted documents submitted to the General Assembly that was to take place in May, the raise by 10% of the salaries of the WHO executives along with the increase of the travel entitlements  for employees to 523 francs per day per person, the equivalent of 500 euros per day
• Romania has a representative in the WHO board, among the 34 specialists of the Executive Board benefiting from these raises: Prof. Dr. Alexandru Rafila. 
• On January 30, two days after dr. Tedros was praising the transparency of president Xi in Beijing, Alexandru Rafila made a similar statement in Bucharest, that he is not questioning the data provided by the Chinese government

WHO held in Geneva the annual meeting of the Executive Board, at the beginning of February, immediately after General-Director dr. Tedros Adhanom returned from Beijing, where he spoke highly about the strategy adopted by China in resolving the COVID-19 crisis, noting”especially the commitment of the high officials and the transparency they have shown”.

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Libertatea newspaper has found that after his return to Geneva, dr. Tedros dedicated to the COVID – 19 epidemic only a few minutes in the opening speech of the annual meeting of the Executive Board. On February 3, he said that he is ”so impressed in his meeting with President Xi”, by the transparency of the Chinese State leaders and reassured the Executive Board of WHO that ”if we invest in fighting at the epicenter, at the source, then the spread to other countries is minimal and also slow”. 

Everything had begun a few days before. 

February 16-24: The WHO Mission in China speaks highly about the actions in Wuhan

On February 28 a WHO report is published, after a one-week mission organized by WHO and the Chinese government. 

The WHO representatives praise in the report the radical approach of China in the epidemic containment.

The conclusion was unequivocal.

The epidemiologists have shown which measures from China would have helped in reversing the epidemic:

“The extreme isolation measures to which people refer – when expressing concerns related to human rights – usually reflect the situation from places like Wuhan – where the virus was first detected. The quarantine was focused in Wuhan and in two or three towns where the number of Covid-19 infections also exploded, stated Bruce Aywlard, the epidemiologist in charge of the mission.

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These are the places where things went out of control at the beginning of the epidemic and China took this decision in order to protect itself and the rest of the world.

Bruce Aywlard, WHO specialist:

January 28: Dr. Tedros praises ”the transparency of the Chinese leaders” in Beijing 

“We appreciate the seriousness with which China is taking this outbreak, especially the commitment from top leadership, and the transparency they have demonstrated, including sharing data and genetic sequence of the virus”, said the head of WHO after meeting president Xi. 

“WHO is working closely with the government on measures to understand the virus and limit transmission. WHO will keep working side-by-side with China and all other countries to protect health and keep people safe”, Tedros added.

February 3: After his return to Geneva, Dr. Tedros disagreed with the limitation of travels to China

During the same speech which was made public by WHO upon Libertatea demand yesterday, dr. Tedros pleaded for the international travel and trade to China to continue, which was a major concern of the government in Beijing, as several flight operators had already reduced their flights and they were isolating China.

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There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade.

dr. Tedros, WHO Director- General, opening speech at the Executive Board meeting, Geneva, February 3, 2020:

At that moment, the new coronavirus had been declared since January 30 a public health emergency of international concern by WHO itself.

This is the 6th time WHO has declared a PHEIC since the International Health Regulations (IHR) came into force in 2005.

January 30, Bucharest: ”The European Union faces moderate risk”

On January 30, when WHO pushes the world alert, Alexandru Rafila, the Romanian representative in the WHO Executive Board, is invited in the show “Piaţa Victoriei”, at Europa FM. 

His speech shows the awareness regarding the danger, a clear and accurate scientific judgement regarding the imminent coming of the epidemic to our country and the measures to be taken to control this event.

“At the moment there are no cases in Romania. Yet we rank,  as a region … the European Union faces a moderate risk. There were cases in France, in Portugal, in Germany. It is important to identify these cases, they must be tested, isolated and monitored for 14 days”, explains Rafila, among other things, at Europa FM.

Dr. Rafila gives credit to the honesty of the Chinese authorities: ”At this moment they are surely correct”

At one point during the show (minute 30:45), journalist Ioana Ene-Dogioiu asks the country representative at WHO: ”Is there, nevertheless, a concern, a suspicion, taking into account that we are talking about the data provided by China, do you have the certainty, can there ever be a certainty that this data is correct and it is not processed?”.

Following the lead of his chief at WHO, Alexandru Rafila gives unconditional credit to the data provided by China.

At this moment they (note: the data) is surely correct as in China, in Wuhan, the teams of the World Health Organization are working closely with the Chinese public health authorities.

Dr. Alexandru Rafila, member of the WHO Executive Board, January 30, 2020, Bucharest:

”The decisions benefit very often from the knowledge of the WHO teams working on the field”, further stated doctor Rafila. ”So the situation is known and you can imagine that if things were different, there would be a contradiction between the statements of the Chinese government and the ones of the WHO experts who are there on the field”, further reassured the WHO official.

February 3-8, Geneva: the shock from the WHO public agenda  

Only a few days after the Executive Board meeting takes place, the 146th session in the history of the organisation. 

Although this meeting lasts 5 full days, the agenda shows that there were talks about COVID-19 only for:

• One hour on February 4  
• 30 minutes on February 7 

The new coronavirus emerged scarcely in the opening speech, the report of the Director-General dr. Tedros.

There was another part in the discussion about how ready the states are to face the regular flu season, indicated for Libertatea Christian Lindmeier, WHO spokesman. But there is no record about what was discussed during this debate about the classic flu. This was all that was discussed about COVID at the most important meeting of WHO before the pandemic.

As the international media was already concerned about the subject, WHO held daily press conferences, in parallel with the Executive Board meeting, according to a joke made before his speech, as shown by a recording, by WHO Director-General, dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

February 3, Geneva, Dr. Tedros in front of the Executive Board: ”So the number of cases we have now, 151, its actually small, and its  growing slowly. Therefore it can be controlled”

On February 3, the director general of WHO granted a few minutes of his speech to the new epidemic that was already recording 17,238 cases in China, and 151 cases outside China, in no less than 23 countries. 

Tedros was optimistic, unrealistically optimistic, knowing what we know today, when China admitted to have had a number of deaths 50% higher than the one initially declared:

During my visit to Beijing last week, I was very impressed in my meeting with President Xi at his detailed knowledge of the outbreak, his personal leadership, and his commitment

dr. Tedros, WHO Director-General, opening speech of the Executive Board, Geneva, February 3, 2020:

”If we invest in fighting at the epicentre, at the source, then the spread to other countries is minimal and also slow. If its minimal and slow, what is going outside can also be controlled easily. So the number of cases we have now, 151, is actually small, and its growing only slowly. So it can be managed. It can get even worse. But if we give it our best, the outcome could be even better.”, further said the leader of the World Health Organization.

The following unfolding yet contradicted the estimation and the steps taken by WHO.  

February 7 februarie, Geneva: they increased their salaries and their daily allowance 

Not only that the Executive Board has not discussed, it has not even issued any document related to COVID-19. 

In exchange, among other documents that were adopted there are several related to the increase of the revenues of WHO employees. To this end, the salary of the director general of WHO increased from 251,859 USD gross per year, the equivalent of 189,801 USD gross per year, an approximate 10% rise compared to the salary received by dr. Tedros before the Executive Board.

On February 7, during the last day of the Executive Board meeting, the committee took the decision to increase the quantum for reimbursement of the travel expenses for the WHO members.

As the figures of the daily allowances were not visible, Libertatea required information regarding the quantum of the current daily allowance. 

According to Christian Lindmeier, WHO spokesman, the members of the WHO Executive Board  are entitled to 140% of the standard travel subsistence allowance (per diem). The UN standard per diem varies every month.  The per diem as at 15 April 2020 amounts to CHF 374.

April 14: The White House announces it will momentarily stop financing towards WHO

The Trump administration has announced that, for the moment, it will cease the financing of the World Health Administration, given what the White House refers to as mismanagement of the response to coronavirus, writes Wall Street Journal.

April 19: Australia calls for an independent investigation regarding the manner in which WHO has managed the new coronavirus crisis

Two days before the announcement made by Australia, a similar statement came from the UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, who has been filling in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from COVID-19.

There’s no doubt we can’t have business as usual after the crisis, and we’ll have to ask the hard questions about how it came about and how it could’ve been stopped earlier.

Dominic Raab, quoted by Newsweek:

During the last weeks, several countries have criticised the manner in which WHO has handled the situation, as well as Chinas lack of transparency. 

The whole world was to find out about the less glorious aspects of the manner in which China handled the epidemic. 

The report, delivered to the White House at the end of March and quoted by Bloomberg, was confirmed by three sources, left anonymous. While China imposed an almost complete quarantine in the province and succeeded to control the epidemic, a lot of experts, not only the American intelligence are doubting the authenticity of the reported figures. 

Critics now accuse China that, by hiding the truth, the totalitarian regime in Beijing did not provide other countries the opportunity to take more radical measures.

WHO suffered a credibility crisis during the Ebola epidemic

This is the reason for which WHO, an organization whose credibility had been already shattered as a result of faulty management of a previous crisis, as the Ebola epidemic, is now criticised from multiple sources worldwide.  

The objective conditions for which WHO moves slowly

On the other hand, we have to recall that:

1. WHO is structured on regions and member states and in fact WHO does not hold the power to directly implement measures, but to create strategies, to analyze an epidemiologic situation, to come up with recommendations which the member states subsequently decide how to implement;
2. The serious financing issues of WHO made it traditionally US-centric, and not at all China-centric as recently stated by president Trump, yet the accusations that, beyond its scientific and medical nature, WHO is also political have been going on for years now, as shown by expert Kelley Lee, who has been studying the organization since the 90’s, in this interview for Vox.

(Translated by Andreea Mira)

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