The World Health Organization stated on Monday that COVID-19 is still a global health emergency, but that the pandemic has reached a transitional phase.
WHO’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee discussed the pandemic on Friday during its 14th meeting on COVID-19, and Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed that the PHEIC (public health emergency of international concern) declaration should continue.
COVID-19 Death Toll
In a statement issued on Monday, WHO’s advisory committee urged WHO to propose alternative mechanisms for maintaining the global and national focus on COVID-19 following the termination of the PHEIC.
In January 2020, the organization declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a PHEIC, roughly six weeks before it was labeled a pandemic.
A PHEIC constructs an agreement between countries to adhere to WHO’s emergency management recommendations. In turn, each country declares its own public health emergency; these declarations carry legal weight. In order to alleviate a crisis, nations use them to mobilize resources and waive rules.
In addition, the United States remains under its own public health emergency declaration, which US Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra renewed on January 11.
In the past eight weeks, more than 170,000 people have died from COVID-19, Tedros stated last week when he announced the committee meeting. Although the world is better equipped to manage the pandemic than it was three years ago, he remains very concerned about the situation in many countries and the rising death toll.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, while the global death toll from Covid-19 is on the rise, the seven-day average is still significantly lower than at earlier points in the pandemic. Prior to last week’s committee meeting, Tedros urged nations to continue their fight against Covid-19.
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Chinese Government Hides Situation in China
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has reversed its stance on Covid-19 lockdowns, implicitly admitting that its previous policy caused more harm than good following the outbreak of protests. Now, public health officials in Beijing have tentatively increased their official death toll from this horrifying pandemic, as the discrepancy between their claimed figures and reality posed a risk of public ridicule.
These ‘adjustments’ also serve as a reminder that China’s position on the origin of this virus that originated within its borders cannot be taken at face value. Many Chinese scientists, physicians, and health officials feel unable to disclose information or share their experiences freely.
And in any nation with restricted free speech, those wishing to analyze or investigate events are hampered if so many facts are contested or even dismissed as fictitious by the government.
Unfortunately, the crucial debate over the origins of COVID-19 has been stifled – and not just in China. And this refusal to openly discuss what everyone suspects to be true – or at the very least highly probable – has the disastrous effect of undermining public confidence in science.
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