GENEVA (Reuters) – Some countries should have listened more carefully when the World Health Organisation declared a global health emergency in January 2020, Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergency expert, said on Monday.
The WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern, its “highest level of alarm”, on Jan. 30 and described the coronavirus as a “pandemic” for the first time on March 11.
Asked if the organisation should have used the term “pandemic” sooner, Ryan said: “Maybe we needed to shout louder, but maybe some people need hearing aids.”
(Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva and Silke Koltrowitz in Zurich; Writing by Toby Chopra; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
