Even as the World Health Organization leads the worldwide response to the coronavirus pandemic, the agency is failing to take stock of rapidly evolving research findings and to communicate clearly about them, several scientists warned Tuesday.
These scientific disagreements have wide policy implications. Many countries, including the United States, adopted lockdown strategies because they recognized that isolating only people who were sick might not be enough to contain the epidemic. “On the one hand, I do want to cut the WHO some slack, because it is hard to do this in an evolving pandemic,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. “At the same time, we do rely on the WHO to give us the best scientific data and evidence.”
Her statement provoked an immediate backlash from scientists, who noted that study after study had shown transmission of the virus from people before they ever felt symptoms. “And when they come out with things that are clearly contradicted by the scientific establishment without any justification or citing studies, it significantly reduces their credibility.”
Van Kerkhove said that by using the two terms, WHO officials are in fact trying to be very clear about the group of people they are referring to. “To date, there has been no demonstration of transmission by this type of aerosol route,” said Dr. Benedetta Allegranzi, the WHO’s technical lead on the coronavirus.
Stop spending almost daily broadcast on social media. Spend more time consolidating and verifying the data and facts. And sharing them as quickly to all countries to update their local efforts to contain the virus.
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