Some researchers say that Tedros was too generous in his public praise of China and that he should have been more forthright about information that China kept from the agency, for example about the first documented cases. By 27 January, Tedros was on a plane to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing three days later, he declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, obliging WHO member states to respond to the threat. It requested more details from Chinese authorities and alerted its networks. On 31 December, the agency picked up news reports about cases of viral pneumonia of unknown provenance in Wuhan, China. The WHO and local health responders worked to contain the spread and vaccinate some 300,000 people during a period of active conflict.īut COVID-19 has really tested the WHO’s ability to manage a fast-moving global pandemic. When Ebola emerged again in 2018 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tedros visited the country multiple times, at great personal risk. “He leads by really rolling up his sleeves and showing an example to others,” says Lawrence Gostin, a researcher of public-health law at Georgetown University in Washington DC. He has won over many public-health researchers and practitioners with his empathy, approachability and hard work. With a background in public health, epidemiology and foreign affairs, Tedros promised to create an agency that could move swiftly to address the next crisis. Tedros became the organization’s first director-general from Africa in 2017, following a troubled response by the WHO to a major Ebola outbreak. “Because we were very alarmed by the geopolitical tensions between major powers, we advocated from the outset for global solidarity,” says Tedros in an e-mail to Nature.įor almost 73 years, the WHO has served as the world’s smoke alarm for emerging health threats, collecting intelligence on hundreds of disease outbreaks and advising nations on their responses - sometimes working directly with local health agencies on the ground. ![]() The day before, US President Donald Trump had said that he would halt funding to the WHO, pending a review of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its dealings with China.īut instead of reacting publicly to Trump’s accusations of ‘mismanagement’ and ‘cover-ups’, Tedros described the United States as a “generous friend” and emphasized the agency’s desire to serve every country and every partner during the pandemic. On 15 April, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), found himself in a political windstorm.
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