The World Health Organisation is responsible for setting global health standards and overseeing the global response to disease outbreaks. By their own admission, they’ve royally fucked up this time.
In a draft document obtained by the Associated Press, the WHO has conceded that it failed in its attempts to stop the spread of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, blaming it on a number of things including incompetent staff and lack of information.
The agency wrote that experts should have realised the traditional containment methods wouldn’t work in a region with open borders and sub-standard health systems.
Nearly everyone involved in the outbreak response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall. A perfect storm was brewing, ready to burst open in full force.
They added that the WHO offices in Africa are “politically motivated appointments” made by the WHO regional director for Africa, a guy named Dr. Luis Sambo, who does not answer to the agency’s chief in Geneva, Dr. Margaret Chan. Erm, that’s a little worrying?
So it sounds like the WHO thought the Ebola virus wasn’t going to be that big of a problem to deal with. Thought they’d just check a few random people at airports and everything would be fine. No need to look into it too much because it’ll just go away by itself eventually. But hey, the WHO are only human just like the rest of us, and as we know humans can be dangerously stupid sometimes, even the ones whose job it is to stop deadly diseases from spreading.
The only guy who stands to benefit from all this is this smart (and morally bankrupt) cookie.
