Category Archives: World Health Organization

WHO’s Covid mission to Wuhan: ‘It’s not about finding China guilty’

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Scientists express caution about what they may find and the political sensitivity around investigation

When the scientists on the World Health Organization’s mission to research the origins of Covid-19 touch down in China as expected on Thursday at the beginning of their investigation they are clear what they will – and what they will not – be doing.

They intend to visit Wuhan, the site of the first major outbreak of Covid-19, and talk to Chinese scientists who have been studying the same issue. They will want to see if there are unexamined samples from unexplained respiratory illnesses, and they will want to examine ways in which the virus might have jumped the species barrier to humans.

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Inside the investigation into how Covid-19 began – podcast

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This week a team of international experts from the WHO will arrive in China to investigate the origins of Covid-19. A year into the pandemic, Guardian health editor Sarah Boseley looks at what questions still need to be answered

A World Health Organization team of international experts tasked with investigating the origins Covid-19 will arrive in China this week. Scientists want to determine how the virus jumped species into humans. A year into the pandemic there are still many unanswered questions over the origins of the novel virus.

The Guardian’s health editor, Sarah Boseley, tells Rachel Humpheys about what the WHO has uncovered over the past 12 months and the challenges it has faced. Ideally, door-to-door detective work, talking to the first people to fall ill and their families and colleagues, would have begun in Wuhan in January. But the city was in lockdown, its streets deserted. And the rest of the world had not yet understood what it was facing, Bruce Aylward, the Canadian doctor and epidemiologist appointed by WHO to lead its fact-finding mission to China in early February told Sarah in a recent phone call.

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China agrees to let in WHO team investigating Covid origins

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Experts to arrive on 14 January country’s national health authority says, but it’s unclear if they will get access to Wuhan

A World Health Organization team of international experts tasked with investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic will arrive in China on 14 January, China’s national health authority has said.

The team was initially aiming to enter China in early January but China blocked their arrival, saying visas had not yet been approved, even as some members of the group were on their way.

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WHO tells rich countries to stop cutting the Covid vaccine queue – video

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World Health Organization chiefs urged rich countries to stop striking bilateral deals with vaccine manufacturers as low and middle-income countries are not yet receiving supplies of Covid inoculation. 

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries that have ordered excess doses to immediately hand them over to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility

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Europe at tipping point with Covid running rampant, says WHO

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Europe director Hans Kluge says rapid spread of new variant is cause for alarm

Europe is at a tipping point in the course of the pandemic, the World Health Organization has said, warning that the coronavirus is spreading very fast across the continent and the arrival of a new variant has created an “alarming situation”.

Related: Coronavirus live news: Japan's PM announces state of emergency for Tokyo; US suffers record daily deaths

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China stalls WHO mission to investigate origins of coronavirus

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UN body says scientists were due to be deployed to country on Tuesday, but China says negotiations ongoing

China has attempted to downplay concerns over its refusal to authorise a fact-finding mission to the country by the World Health Organization to study the origins of Covid-19, saying it is still negotiating access with the UN body.

A day after the head of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was “very disappointed” that China had not authorised the entry of the 10-strong research team, led by Dr Peter Ben Embarek, China insisted there had been a “misunderstanding” between the two sides about agreed dates for the visit, adding that discussions were ongoing.

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Australia says China should allow in WHO Covid investigators ‘without delay’

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Foreign minister Marise Payne issues mild statement, but opposition parties attack China’s ‘unacceptable’ actions and ‘paranoia’

The Australian government has called on China to allow a visit by World Health Organization experts investigating how the coronavirus pandemic started, insisting the country should grant them visas “without delay”.

Canberra raised its concerns on Wednesday over reports that Chinese authorities had blocked the arrival of a WHO team investigating the early cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan.

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WHO warns Covid-19 pandemic is ‘not necessarily the big one’ – video

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Experts from the World Health Organization have told the end of year media briefing that even though the coronavirus pandemic has been severe, it is 'not necessarily the big one', and that the virus is likely to become endemic and the world will have to learn to live with it. The head of the WHO emergencies programme, Dr Mike Ryan, warned that the next pandemic may be worse, while Prof David Heymann, the chair of the WHO's strategic and technical advisory group for infectious hazards, said the 'destiny' of the virus is to become endemic, even as vaccines begin to be rolled out across the world

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WHO warns Covid-19 pandemic is ‘not necessarily the big one’

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Experts tell end of year media briefing that virus is likely to become endemic and the world will have to learn to live with it

World Health Organization experts have warned that even though the coronavirus pandemic has been very severe, it is “not necessarily the big one”, and that the world will have to learn to live with Covid-19.

The “destiny” of the virus is to become endemic, even as vaccines begin to be rolled out in the US and UK, says Professor David Heymann, the chair of the WHO’s strategic and technical advisory group for infectious hazards.

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Australia insists WHO inquiry into Covid origin must be robust, despite China tensions

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Australia, whose early call for inquiry sparked furious Chinese response, says it expects ‘robust, independent and comprehensive’ report

Australia is pushing to ensure the global inquiry it helped trigger into the early handling of the Covid-19 pandemic doesn’t pull any punches – a move that has the potential to risk further recriminations from China.

Amid scepticism among several government backbenchers that the inquiry will fully address Chinese authorities’ early missteps and reporting delays, Australia is using its final months on a top World Health Organization board to press for the investigation to remain robust and independent.

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Origin story: what do we know now about where coronavirus came from?

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When Chinese scientists alerted colleagues to a new virus last December, suspicion fell on a Wuhan market. What have health officials learned since then?

Maria van Kerkhove was staying with her sister in the US for the Christmas holidays, but checking her emails. As always. Every day there are signals of potential trouble, said the World Health Organization virologist who was to become a household name and face within weeks.

“There’s always something that happens at Christmas time. There’s always some alert, or a signal of a suspected case. The last several years it’s been Mers [Middle East respiratory syndrome] – a suspect case travelling to Malaysia or Indonesia or Korea or somewhere in Asia from the Middle East. So there’s always some kind of signal. There’s always something that happens,” she said.

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WHO accused of conspiring with Italy to remove damning Covid report

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Exclusive: document intended to help prevent future deaths allegedly pulled from website after request

The World Health Organization has been accused of conspiring with the Italian health ministry to remove a report revealing the country’s mismanagement at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic – the publication of which was intended to prevent future deaths.

Italy was the first European country to become engulfed by the pandemic. The report, produced by the WHO scientist Francesco Zambon and 10 colleagues across Europe, was funded by Kuwait’s government with the objective of providing information to countries yet to be hit.

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WHO looks at giving Covid-19 to healthy people to speed up vaccine trials

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Advisory meeting will discuss feasibility of human challenge trials despite first jabs becoming available

The World Health Organization is holding discussions on Monday about the feasibility of trials in which healthy young volunteers are deliberately infected with coronavirus to hasten vaccine development – amid questions over whether they should go ahead given the promising data from the frontrunner vaccine candidates.

Some scientists have reservations about exposing volunteers to a virus for which there is no cure, although there are treatments that can help patients. However, proponents argue that the risks of Covid-19 to the young and healthy are minimal, and the benefits to society are high.

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‘No time for complacency’: WHO chief urges caution over festive season – video

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Spending time with friends and family at Christmas is ‘not worth putting them or yourself at risk’, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, has said.

He advised people to consider not travelling during the next few months, and urged ‘extreme caution’ despite last week seeing the first decline in newly reported cases globally since September, saying these gains could easily be lost

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Will everyone in the world have access to a Covid vaccine? – video explainer

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The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine is showing promise but it is premature to say the end of the pandemic is nigh. Several rich countries have signed a 'frenzy of deals' that could prevent many poor nations from getting access to immunisation until at least 2024. Also, many drug firms are potentially refusing to waive patents and other intellectual property rights in order to secure exclusive rights to any cure.

Michael Safi, the Guardian's international correspondent, explains why 'vaccine nationalisation' could scupper global efforts to kill the virus and examines what is being done to tackle the issue

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Trump tells G20 leaders he wants to work with them ‘for a long time’

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US president delivers boasts and falsehoods while other members focus on dealing with the pandemic

Donald Trump has taken his campaign to deny the results of the US presidential election global, telling world leaders at the G20 summit that he looks forward to “working with you again for a long time”.

The gathering of leaders of major world economies is being held online this year, because of the pandemic, but could have been an occasion for Trump to bid his peers goodbye and pledge American support to the battle against Covid-19.

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Covid vaccines should not be seen as ‘unicorn’ solution, says WHO chief – video

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Michael Ryan, the head of the World Health Organization’s emergencies programme, has said that while vaccines are effective tools, they are not the lone solution to ending the coronavirus pandemic.

‘Some people think that vaccines will be, in a sense, the solution, the unicorn we’ve all been chasing,’ he said during a virtual briefing in Geneva on Wednesday, warning other measures such as social distancing needed to be maintained.

It comes after positive efficacy results from late-stage trials of two potential Covid-19 vaccines

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Democratic Republic of Congo declares end to Ebola outbreak

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End of 11th outbreak is first time for nearly three years country has been free of Ebola

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has declared an end to its 11th Ebola outbreak, nearly six months after cases were reported.

The end of the outbreak in the western province of Équateur marks the first time that the vast central African nation has been Ebola-free in about two and a half years.

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Global report: new Covid lockdown in Hungary as Belgium passes second peak

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Portugal imposes state of emergency; global cases pass 50m; infections in Germany ‘levelling off’

Hungary and Portugal have become the latest countries in Europe to impose tough new restrictions to stem the second wave of the coronavirus, as the first signs of light at the end of the tunnel emerged in France, Germany and Belgium.

As the US pharmaceuticals company Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, said their experimental Covid-19 vaccine appeared safe and more than 90% effective, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, announced a partial lockdown.

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