Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf have agreed to head the panel
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was setting up an independent panel to review its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the response by governments worldwide.
The announcement follows strong criticism by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which accused the WHO of being ‘China-centric,’ and US formal notification on Tuesday that it was withdrawing from the UN agency in a year.
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf have agreed to head the panel, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“The magnitude of this pandemic, which has touched virtually everyone in the world, clearly deserves a commensurate evaluation, an honest evaluation,” Tedros told a virtual meeting with representatives of WHO’s 194 member states.
The co-chairs will select the other panel members, he said. The panel will then provide an interim report to an annual meeting of health ministers in November and present a ‘substantive report’ next May.
“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,” Tedros said.
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