Pandemic: WHO declares coronavirus a major global threat
Al JazeeraWHO says it is ‘deeply concerned’ by spread and severity and criticises ‘alarming levels of inaction’ over the disease. 🚨 BREAKING 🚨 "We have therefore made the assessment that #COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic"-@DrTedros #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/JqdsM2051A — World Health Organization March 11, 2020 Major global threat Dr Eric Toner, a senior scientist at John Hopkins Center for Health Security, welcomed the WHO’s pandemic declaration. “To call it a ‘pandemic’ means that being able to put the brakes on the virus is basically off, and all countries around the world are now potentially exposed very soon if they aren’t already,” he said. China did not initially handle the coronavirus outbreak well, likely costing the world two months when it could have prepared and dramatically limited the outbreak, Robert O’Brien, the White House national security adviser, said. “It probably cost the world community two months to respond,” during which “we could have dramatically curtailed what happened both in China and what’s now happening across the world,” said O’Brien.