Mike Ryan, one of the World Health Organization’s top emergency expert said that the world risked future pandemics if did not learn from the current coronavirus crisis.
Ryan also took a swipe at developed nations, saying that northern countries had been running healthcare systems like low-cost airlines and that the world was paying for that now.
“In the north, because of the cost model for health systems, we have designed our health systems to be delivered at 95 percent, 98 percent, at 100 percent efficiency. It’s almost like a low-cost airline model for health service delivery,” he said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also urged countries not to politicize the hunt for the origins of the new coronavirus, saying that would only create barriers to learning the truth.
“We need to know the origin of this virus because it can help us to prevent future outbreaks,” Tedros said.
“There is nothing to hide. We want to know the origin, and that’s it.”
US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has accused China of hiding the extent of the outbreak and the Geneva-based global health body of being too close to Beijing, has criticized the terms of a WHO-led international investigation into the origin of the pandemic.
Chinese state media have said the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, citing the presence of coronavirus on imported frozen food packaging and scientific papers saying it had been circulating in Europe last year.
