Global Network for Academic Public Health statement on the World Health Organization’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the present global context, where there are widespread inequities in health and healthcare between and within countries, and public health systems frequently deprived of resources, a pandemic caused by a respiratory pathogen capable of human transmission was always going to have disastrous consequences. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been a key driver of response efforts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to lead the response despite having come under immense scrutiny globally (Buranyi 2020). As the disease burden intensifies and the associated crisis deepens, it is essential to contextualise the WHO’s response within the scope of its responsibilities, the context of their mandates, and their level of maneuverability, as well as to appraise it in the backdrop of the knowledge and evidence unfolding around coronavirus pandemic. Click here to read more