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The World Health Organization (WHO) database on health care attacks makes no mention of doctors silenced by the Chinese government amid the coronavirus crisis.
Critics believe it is the latest sign of the agency’s pro-China bias.
WHO created the Attacks on Health Care initiative to “collect evidence on attacks on health care” across the globe. They also claim “to advocate for the end of such attacks, and to promote best practices for safeguarding health care from attacks.”
They define these health care attacks as “any act of verbal or physical violence or obstruction or threat of violence” that stands in the way of availability, access, and delivery of health services during emergencies.
As expected, these attacks stand to deprive people of needed care. But, they also endanger health care providers and undermine entire health systems.
However, the database makes no mention of the Chinese government silencing doctors who sought to sound the alarm on the novel coronavirus.
They tried warning others before it turned into a global pandemic that has infected millions.
As the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, doctors tried to warn the world of the new virus. However, we now know that Chinese authorities suppressed and silenced those doctors.
The Public Security Bureau summoned one doctor for his warnings. They accused him of “making false comments” that had “severely disturbed the social order.”
The bureau forced him to sign a letter that warned of being “brought to justice”. That is, if he continued warning others of the new illness. This is what they referred to as “illegal activity.”
This was only one case of many. In fact, the police were investigating seven other doctors for “spreading rumors.”
“The WHO is charged with protecting a so-called ‘right to health’ by closely monitoring attacks on health care systems around the globe, attacks that include obstruction to health care delivery.” Says Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust.
“And yet in the year 2020, China is missing altogether from the WHO list of nine problem countries or territories,” Bayefsky points out. “Emblematic of the U.N. system, this is a politicized intolerable travesty, that has done earth-shattering damage to global health care.”
President Donald Trump paused U.S. funding to the WHO temporarily, in part because of the WHO’s alleged bias toward China.
WHO stands accused of bowing to political pressure from China in the beginning of the crisis.
Trump threatened to stop funding permanently, unless the WHO commits to “major substantive improvements.”
He also mentioned the possibility of the U.S. withdrawing from the organization entirely.
