03-30-2020, 02:01 AM
(03-29-2020, 08:01 PM)6andcounting Wrote: My original post was just criticizing WHO for now admonishing countries for not preparing sooner when before WHO themselves told everyone there's no particular reason to believe it could be spread by humans to other humans. If WHO's best defense is that countries should have known better than to have listened to them - that just furthers my criticism of WHO.
That is not what the WHO wrote in that tweet.
Quote:As for Lou Dobbs, Trump and Fox News - that had nothing to do with my criticism of WHO. But I don't think criticism of Trump and WHO has to be mutually exclusive.
And that was a tweet. Not a recommendation. Not policy. A tweet. At one particular point in time. A time when there were approximately 41 cases and one death (three days prior to the tweet) globally and all cases were still contained in China. That tweet didn’t affect other country’s preparations one way or the other.
https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/who-advice-for-international-travel-and-trade-in-relation-to-the-outbreak-of-pneumonia-caused-by-a-new-coronavirus-in-china
Quote: From the currently available information, preliminary investigation suggests that there is no significant human-to-human transmission, and no infections among health care workers have occurred. More information is required to better understand the mode of transmission and clinical manifestation of this new virus. The source of this new virus is not yet known.
https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/updated-who-advice-for-international-traffic-in-relation-to-the-outbreak-of-the-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-24-jan/
Quote: As of 24 January 2020, human-to-human transmission has been confirmed largely in Wuhan city, but also some other places in China and internationally.
So just to review the timeline:
12/31/19 Cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology were reported
1/9/20 A novel coronavirus was determined to be the cause
1/14/20 the WHO tweeted the Chinese government claimed there was no evidence of human to human spread, but warned it is always a concern with respiratory illnesses and more information was needed; at this point there are approximately 40 cases
1/24/20 human to human spread had been confirmed; at this point there are approximately 300 cases with 1 in Japan, 1 in Korea, and 2 in Thailand
2/28/20 WHO raised level of alert to highest possible, Trump claimed it was a hoax; at this point there were approximately 84K cases and 3K deaths, it had spread globally to too many countries for me to bother listing
But Fox News doesn’t include the part where the UN warned that just because China says there is no evidence doesn’t necessarily mean it is true all in an attempt to give Trump cover from criticism.