Category Archives: World Health Organization

Mike Pompeo attacks WHO in private meeting during UK visit

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US secretary of state said the World Health Organization was responsible for Britons who had died from Covid-19

The US secretary of state Mike Pompeo launched an extraordinary attack on the World Health Organization during a private meeting in the UK, accusing it of being in the pocket of China and responsible for “dead Britons” who passed away during the pandemic.

Pompeo told those present that he believed the WHO was “political not a science-based organisation” and accused its current director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of being too close to Beijing.

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Coronavirus live news: no sign of infection slowing across Americas; UK records 110 new deaths

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Some central American nations seeing highest weekly increase in cases; official UK death toll now stands at 45,422

The Nobel Foundation, which manages the Nobel Prizes, on Tuesday cancelled its traditional December banquet because of the coronavirus pandemic and said the award ceremonies would be held in “new forms”, AFP reports.

This is the first time since 1956 that the lavish banquet has been cancelled, according to the foundation. The event traditionally marks the end of the so-called Nobel Week, when the year’s prize-winners are invited to Swedish capital Stockholm for talks and the award ceremony.

Joe Biden, in a scathing speech in his campaign to become the next US president, said Donald Trump had ‘quit’ on US citizens and did not care about America.

In a speech on his plan for the economy, in which he promised to expand access to preschool for working families, directly linking the need for affordable childcare to America’s economic recovery, Biden said Trump was not taking the public health crisis seriously:

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Coronavirus live news: EU agrees Covid-19 recovery plan, WHO warns over Africa spread

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€750bn EU Covid-19 recovery plan agreed in early morning talks; Trump to resume daily briefings, backs face masks as ‘patriotic’; two Brazil ministers test positive. Follow latest updates

Passengers of China-bound flights must provide negative Covid-19 test results before boarding, China’s aviation authority has said.

The Chinese government has sought to reduce the risk of imported coronavirus cases as international travel resumes.

The €750bn deal is the “most important economic decision since the introduction of the euro,” according to the EU’s economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, who said the most difficult challenge for the commission starts now.

Il vertice infinito è finito con un’intesa. #NextGenerationEU è la più importante decisione economica dall’introduzione dell’euro. Per la Commissione, che ha proposto il piano, comincia la sfida più difficile. #21luglio L’Europa è più forte delle proprie divisioni.

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Coronavirus: no return to normal ‘for the foreseeable future’, says WHO – video

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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, has criticised the leaders of countries where 'mixed messages' have led to a breakdown in trust over measures to limit the spread of Covid-19.  Tedros said there would be no return to the old normal 'for the foreseeable future', adding: 'there are no short cuts out of this pandemic'.

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The world needs grown-up leadership. Time for Germany to step up | Shada Islam

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With Germany at the EU helm, there’s a unique chance for Europe to fill the vacuum left by the retreating US

With Trump’s US missing in action from the global stage, the European Union should be stepping into the vacuum. Germany, which has just taken over the bloc’s rotating presidency, could use the next six months to provide the leadership to boost Europe’s global impact. But is it ready to shake off its traditional reticence?

Immediate economic challenges will dominate EU leaders’ first in-person encounter since the lockdown, on 17 and 18 July. And Berlin is right to prioritise agreement on the EU’s new seven-year budget and a pandemic recovery plan, a task complicated by internal rifts and new forecasts warning of an even deeper recession than expected across the 27-nation bloc. As Angela Merkel said in a recent Guardian interview: “For Europe to survive, its economy needs to survive.”

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The Guardian view on Covid-19 worldwide: on the march

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Infections are accelerating in largely untouched countries and those which hoped they had come through the worst. But there is hope

“Most of the world sort of sat by and watched with almost a sense of detachment and bemusement,” said Helen Clark, appointed to investigate the World Health Organization’s handling of the pandemic. The former New Zealand prime minister was describing the early weeks of the outbreak, and the sense that coronavirus was a problem “over there”. The failure to recognise our interconnection created complacency even as the death toll rose.

It took three months for the first million people to fall sick – but only a week to record the last million of the nearly 13 million cases now reported worldwide. As England emerges from lockdown at an unwary pace, Covid-19 is accelerating globally. The WHO has reported a record surge of a quarter of a million cases in a single day. The death toll is over half a million people and rising fast.

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Global ‘catastrophe’ looms as Covid-19 fuels inequality

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Job losses, homelessness, school closures and acute hunger set to rise dramatically without urgent support, Christian Aid warns

The pandemic has exposed and reinforced deep inequalities across the world, with the true extent yet to be seen, according to a major new report.

The crisis in the poorest countries threatens to escalate into a catastrophe as job losses and food insecurity mount. “The economic, social and political impacts are only starting to unfold,” says Building Back with Justice: Dismantling Inequalities after Covid-19, to be published by Christian Aid later this month.

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Global report: Tokyo hits Covid-19 high as Australia limits arrivals

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Japan reels from resurgence of virus while Australia restricts admissions to 4,000 a week

Tokyo hit another record daily high number of new cases, Australia is to halve the number of citizens it allows to return each week and Hong Kong’s schools have closed early for the summer as countries around the world struggled to contain fresh coronavirus outbreaks.

Amid growing signs of a resurgence of the virus in Japan, the capital reported 243 new infections on Friday, more than the previous day’s 224 and the first time that more than 200 cases have been confirmed for two consecutive days.

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WHO’s Covid-19 inquiry is a shrewd move in a sea of disinformation

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Its findings should illuminate global responses amid conspiracy theories and Trump’s mudslinging

In the world of epidemiology it’s sometimes said that pandemics are lived forwards and understood backwards.

We encounter them head-on, chaotically, trying to fathom the disease in real time even while trying to mitigate its impact. Lessons generally come later as the evidence accumulates.

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Helen Clark: WHO coronavirus inquiry aims to ‘stop the world being blindsided again’

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Former New Zealand prime minister says WHO director general said during early days he was ‘screaming every day but no one is listening’

A former prime minister of New Zealand whose leadership was defined by stability and thoroughness has been appointed to investigate if the World Health Organization failed to adequately warn of the coronavirus pandemic.

In global circles, Helen Clark became known as a “fighter” and has described the WHO investigation as “exceptionally challenging” and a “very tough gig”, given the review would be conducted in the midst of a pandemic. Speaking to the Guardian from her home in Auckland, Clark said she had to start immediately – “before another pandemic is upon us”.

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Scientists join forces to investigate airborne risk of coronavirus

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WHO adviser says results from well-designed studies are needed before it changes its advice

A major research effort is under way to understand whether Covid-19 can spread through tiny airborne particles that are released by infected people and remain suspended in the air for hours.

Scientists are working alongside sanitary engineers at the World Health Organization to investigate how tiny aerosols bearing the virus may be released into the environment; whether they are spread around rooms by air-conditioning units; and how infectious the particles may be.

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‘Evidence emerging’ of airborne Covid-19 spread, says WHO – video

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Members of the World Health Organization’s technical committee have said they are working on publishing a scientific brief about how and if the coronavirus can spread in the air, following a letter signed by more than 200 scientists who have called for the WHO and others to acknowledge that the disease can spread in the air. Committee member Prof Benedetta Allegranzi said evidence on airborne transmission was emerging but ‘is not definitive’

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Global report: WHO reports record 200,000 cases in one day, amid surging outbreaks

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Donald Trump describes ‘victory’ over virus as cases rise; Mexico death toll becomes 5th highest; Australia’s toughest lockdown begins

The World Health Organization has reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases with 212,326 being recorded in just 24 hours, amid a surge in the United States, Brazil and India.

The WHO’s situation report showed that just under 130,000 of those new cases were in the Americas, including the US, Brazil and Mexico, but the WHO said South-East Asia, including India stood at just under new 28,000 new cases on Saturday.

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Jordan bans smoking and vaping in indoor public spaces

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Decision follows recent revelation country has highest rates of tobacco use in the world

The Jordanian government has banned smoking and vaping in all indoor public spaces a week after a Guardian investigation revealed tobacco use in the country had become the highest in the world.

The country’s health ministry said on Wednesday all enclosed public areas would now be “100% smoke-free environments”, building on an existing but widely flouted ban on smoking inside government buildings, and ending an exemption for hotels, cafes and restaurants provided they separated smokers from non-smokers.

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Record Covid-19 cases in California as some countries prepare for ‘universal’ testing

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LA closes beaches and businesses as hospitals fill up while Bavaria announces ‘test offensive’

California has reported record new infections following its reopening as Los Angeles county ordered all beaches closed for 4 July and the re-shuttering of some businesses.

Amid warnings hospitals were filling up and others could run out of intensive care beds in the coming weeks, the state broke its record on Monday for the highest number of new coronavirus cases reported in a single day, with more than 8,000 – the third time in eight days the state has broken a record for new cases.

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‘Not even close to being over’: WHO chief urges testing and isolation of Covid-19 cases – video

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The head of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaks at a conference in Geneva almost exactly six months after the first reports of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China.

Tedros said test, trace and isolate was the best approach for governments, adding that in this way and without a vaccine or treatment countries have managed to keep the number of cases low

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‘A sobering reminder’: global coronavirus cases to hit 10 million next week, says WHO – video

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World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom has said he expects the number of coronavirus cases around the world, now at approximately 9.3 million, to reach 10 million next week. Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies programme, said the pandemic for many countries in the Americas had not yet peaked, and that it was 'still intense', especially in Central and South America.

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Coronavirus live news: pandemic is accelerating, says WHO chief

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Brazil passes 1 million infections; Australia struggles with new cases; Greta Thunberg says similar urgency needed for climate change as for Covid-19

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday hailed “hero” doctors who died during the coronavirus epidemic, comparing them to battlefield medics from past wars.

Putin, who spoke ahead of next month’s controversial vote that is expected to extend his hold on power until 2036, also promised awards and more bonuses for health personnel.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Saturday that Turkey had lost some ground in its battle with the coronavirus but a focus on hygiene, masks and social distancing will protect people and help the economy rebound in the second half of the year.

This month, Ankara opened restaurants and cafes and lifted weekend stay-at-home orders and most intercity travel bans. But since 1 June, new Covid-19 cases have doubled to nearly 1,600 per day, raising concerns of a re-emergence.

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‘The pandemic is accelerating’: WHO warns of dangerous coronavirus phase – video

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The World Health Organization has announced the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating and more than 150,000 cases of Covid-19 were reported in one day on Thursday, the highest single-day number so far.


Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, told reporters in Geneva refugees were particularly at risk from the pandemic and that nearly half of the newly reported cases were in the Americas, with significant numbers from South Asia and the Middle East

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Coronavirus mass surveillance could be here to stay, experts say

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Use of invasive digital and physical tracking measures soars as the pandemic spreads

Extensive surveillance measures introduced around the world during the coronavirus outbreak have widened and become entrenched, digital rights experts have said, three months after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic.

The measures have often been billed as temporary necessities rushed into place to help track infections, but governments have been accused of denting civil rights with the widespread use of techniques such as phone monitoring, contact tracing apps, and physical surveillance such as CCTV with facial recognition.

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