World Health Organization Panel To Review World Governments' Responses To Coronavirus Pandemic

The World Health Organization said Thursday it would set up an independent board to review the response by world governments to the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement follows months of intense criticism by U.S. President Donald Trump of the U.N. agency's response to the pandemic, accusing it of being “China-centric” and culminating in the start Tuesday of the U.S. withdrawal from the organization.

As of Thursday, there were more than 12 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 550,000 reported deaths.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference the panel will be led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. They will select the rest of the panel, with an “interim report” due in November and a “substantive report” due next May.

“The magnitude of this pandemic, which has touched virtually everyone in the world, clearly deserves a commensurate evaluation, an honest evaluation,” Ghebreyesus said. “This is not a standard report that ticks a box and is then put on a shelf to gather dust. This is something we take seriously.”

The European Union proposed the independent review panel in May to get an accurate assessment of how the world's governments responded to the pandemic.

"My friends, make no mistake. The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself," Ghebreyesus said. "Rather, it is the lack of leadership and solidarity at the global and national levels. We cannot defeat this pandemic as a divided world."

The statement appeared to be in response to Trump’s repeated attacks on WHO. Trump has accused the WHO of being “misled” and “controlled” by China. He threatened to pull U.S. funding in April before declaring U.S. withdrawal from the agency.