EU calls for probe into World Health Organisation’s response to coronavirus

The European parliament. (Photo by Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) - Credit: Getty Images

The EU has joined other countries in calling for an independent evaluation of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The resolution has the support of more than half of the WHO’s member countries and will be discussed this week at the decision-making body of the UN health agency, being held virtually this year.

It is intended to initiate ‘a stepwise process of impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation’ of the WHO’s efforts to coordinate the international response to Covid-19, including the functioning of international health law and its actions within the greater UN health system.

The move comes amid Australia’s call for an independent inquiry into the origins of the pandemic and the WHO’s response to it – and after US president Donald Trump’s repeated accusations that the WHO helped China cover up the extent of the initial Covid-19 outbreak.

Trump has also called for an immediate halt to all US funding to the UN health agency.


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The EU resolution proposes that the independent evaluation should be initiated ‘at the earliest appropriate moment’ and should, among other issues, examine ‘the actions of the WHO and their timelines pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic’.

The WHO announced the coronavirus outbreak to be a global health emergency on January 30, its highest level of alert. In the following weeks, the WHO warned countries there was a narrowing ‘window of opportunity’ to prevent the virus from spreading globally.

WHO officials, however, repeatedly described the transmission of the virus as ‘limited’ and said it was not as transmissible as flu; experts have since said Covid-19 spreads even faster.

It declared the outbreak to be a pandemic on March 11, after the virus had killed thousands globally and sparked large epidemics in South Korea, Italy, Iran and elsewhere.