Proposals may lead to WHO shake-up

GENEVA: The World Health Organization, at the heart of the world’s slow and stuttering handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, faces a potential shake-up aimed at preventing future outbreaks from destroying lives and livelihoods.

Health ministers from WHO member states agreed yesterday to study recommendations for reforms made by independent experts to strengthen the capacity of the WHO and countries to contain new pathogens. The experts, who found crucial failures in the global response in early 2020, said the WHO should be given the power to send investigators to chase down new disease outbreaks and to publish their findings without delay.