[BostonCard]

Very interesting article, that Slow Pearl Harbors...

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/t...us-crisis/

Good piece.  Thanks for sharing.

BC

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There's no question that the horses were long gone from the barn by January 31st. But there's also no question that WHO's acquiescence to the CCP spin on the virus did enormous damage.


Whether that justifies abandonment of the organization, I don't know. But it seems to have failed near completely here, much worse than our own CDC.

The WHO is only going to be as good as the information it receives, and the CCP is good at subverting organizations to suit its purposes.  If it is told there is no evidence of human to human transmission, aside from going to Wuhan and doing its own case epidemiology, it's going to have to assume that the reports it gets are true until it is obvious that they aren't.  In a fast moving epidemic, data is always provisional.  And "no evidence of human transmission" means just that, not "the virus cannot be transmitted from person to person".

To me the bigger sin is becoming politicized in the dispute between China and Taiwan.  China likes to throw its weight around like that to the detriment of the broader mission of the WHO, and it would be reasonable to push back.  But not now.  The WHO serves a valuable purpose and is going to be needed to help developing nations cope with this virus.

Besides, it's the WHO that is testing Trump's favorite cure for COVID-19.  https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/18/who-...rus-drugs/

BC

[BostonCard]

Very interesting article, that Slow Pearl Harbors...

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/t...us-crisis/

Good piece.  Thanks for sharing.

BC

---

There's no question that the horses were long gone from the barn by January 31st. But there's also no question that WHO's acquiescence to the CCP spin on the virus did enormous damage.


Whether that justifies abandonment of the organization, I don't know. But it seems to have failed near completely here, much worse than our own CDC.

The WHO is only going to be as good as the information it receives, and the CCP is good at subverting organizations to suit its purposes.  If it is told there is no evidence of human to human transmission, aside from going to Wuhan and doing its own case epidemiology, it's going to have to assume that the reports it gets are true until it is obvious that they aren't.  In a fast moving epidemic, data is always provisional.  And "no evidence of human transmission" means just that, not "the virus cannot be transmitted from person to person".

To me the bigger sin is becoming politicized in the dispute between China and Taiwan.  China likes to throw its weight around like that to the detriment of the broader mission of the WHO, and it would be reasonable to push back.  But not now.  The WHO serves a valuable purpose and is going to be needed to help developing nations cope with this virus.

Besides, it's the WHO that is testing Trump's favorite cure for COVID-19.  https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/18/who-...rus-drugs/

BC