Safdar Khan, M.D., is the chief of Spine at Ohio State University. He is also from Pakistan and received his medical degree there.
“It is undeniable that worldwide health issues require a coordinated worldwide response. Unfortunately, diseases do not recognize national borders. When scientists and clinicians are able to work collaboratively their effectiveness is enhanced.”
“Whether or not the W.H.O. is the proper vehicle for this collaboration and whether there is a certain amount of empty rhetoric is a fair question. But shaking things up in the middle of a health care emergency is unwise.”
“In my home country of Pakistan, I have seen the organization’s work enhance the effectiveness of Pakistani’s public health system by collaborating with government entities in health security, nutrition, mental health issues and surveillance.”
“The W.H.O. needs to improve by better infrastructure, communication and funding underserved/underfunded programs in developed and developing nations without the specter of politicization. Personally, I hope the organization is given a chance to make these improvements. What happens in Pakistan shows up at my university in the time it takes to fly there.”
Pandemic Answers Demanded
The W.H.O. has critics who are demanding to know why the organization did not challenge China, which, according to an Associated Press (AP) report, delayed releasing important information on the coronavirus in the early days of the outbreak. Even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quoted as saying “there are many questions that need to be answered.”
The AP report said the international health agency recognized “time was of the essence.” Dr. Mike Ryan, the executive director of W.H.O.’s health emergencies program, reportedly complained on January 8, “the fact is, we’re two to three weeks into an event, we don’t have a laboratory diagnosis, we don’t have an age, sex or geographic distribution, we don’t have an epi curve.”
The crux of the criticism against China’s delay, reported the AP, “lies in the fact that more than two weeks had passed since the partial sequence had been decoded and more than a week since three other labs had full sequences before the sequences were finally published.”
The W.H.O. declared a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, with just over 10,000 cases, of which 80 were outside of mainland China.
