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© Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.As virus outbreaks multiply, WHO declines to declare pandemic
By MARIA CHENG LONDON©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
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JJ Jetplane
They are really trying their best not to declare a world wide recession and not scare people. However, it's too late. Just because you don't want to accept the truth it doesn't mean it isn't happening. The virus is at pandemic levels. Avoiding the truth can cause people to act just as reckless as saying it.
PTownsend
Not a tough choice: believe a professor of global public health, or anonymous internet propagandists. But then this is the post-truth era when nations and organizations pushing extremist beliefs pay employees to spread misinformation intended to further fracture divisions in 'western' democracies.
Aly Rustom
over 100,000 infected in over 80 countries and they don't think they should declare a pandemic? Ok.
PTownsend
Someone would have to have deep state level connections, maybe get their info from one of the internet research agencies or some other govt backed source, to say there are no data from which to declare what COVID19 is. Or perhaps have an agenda.
TrevorPeace
Who cares what it's called? It's a worldwide public health problem. Supposedly, we humans have labs that can identify and eradicate it. Or is that just too human, to think we're the ultimate species?
Jimizo
You really should value evidence more. On topics like this, people making speculations, running with conspiracy theories or the ‘just saying’ crowd are so unhelpful.
Sh1mon M4sada
Declaring a pandemic makes China looks bad, and makes the WHO looks even worse because it wanted borders kept open for infections to proliferate globally.
Never mind the facts. Just because global economic damage is massive doesn't mean the WHO should ignore its plush Geneva HQ, rented luxury villas for WHO execs, exclusive Swiss private school fees, business class travels etc...who's going to pay for all this?
A pandemic will be called by the WHO when the CCP call it first. But the CCP won't because it's pursuing international certification for the Wuhan P4 lab, the same one storing viruses with a 96% genetic match to the Covid-19 virus. The only place in the entire world that Covid-19 could have incompetently leaked from.
Jimizo
That’s what I read. It won’t stop those in addled by panic or the conspiracy theory lovers though.
They are so predictable.
mariasjapan
Pandemic or not it's already a worldwide public health problem!!!
Jimizo
There is so much wrong with this thinking. You do see the flaws in it, don’t you?
Just start with the word ‘assume’ for now.
Jimizo
I know, but haven’t given us anything to think the CCP is competent. It is certainly corrupt. The CCP itself knows this and has vowed to root it out.
So we are to base our thinking on an unproven idea that the notoriously corrupt CCP is competent and speculate from there?
This is not a good idea. You do see this, don’t you?
Who am I
It is possible for a lab holding a virus that matches 96% the corona virus simply because similar viruses exist in bats and other animals and may be kept by a lab. The SARS virus is one known virus similar to the corona virus. From a lab holding such a virus one cannot conclude that the corona virus originated from that lab.
Jimizo
You posted an assumption that the CCP is competent. Just off the top of my head and having spent quite a bit of time in China, one possible reason is that local CCP officials are notoriously corrupt and allow things to conveniently slip through the net.
I could come up with plenty more.
Your assumption has very shaky foundations.
nandakandamanda
Most medical reports are now describing this as an epidemic so 'yes it is', 'no it isn't' is now largely semantic.
WHO and the UN need to stay more ahead of the game.
Chip Star
Youee assuming the outbreak came from the wuhan lab. That conspiracy has been debunked.
kwatt
I wonder why people are panicking a lot about coronavirus? Its mortality rate is much much lower than influenza. Maybe now there is no good medicine to cure soon and no vaccine, however most patients recover from it with regular medicine. I'm sure coronavirus is going to be just another virus in a few years.
Jandworld
Its not a single country affair and more likely the economic outreach has more depth.
proxy
Heard of the "pandemic bonds?" They pay out 10% if the UN declares a pandemic. The elapsed time period required for them to pay out will be March 24th. Countries like Japan will be on the hook to pay out the bonds if a pandemic is declared so if you pay taxes in Japan, you should hope the bonds don't pay out.
sf2k
deflecting their responsibilities yet again
nandakandamanda
NB 'epidemic' should be 'pandemic' above... !
Hung Nguyen
Pandemic is when a deadly virus outbreak spreads more than two continents. Why has WHO just been refusing to use the term "pandemic given only Antarctica is free from this outbreak?" Would WHO officially use that word when some of its directors become infected?
Sh1mon M4sada
It was in an official report released jointly by the WHO and China about a week ago. It's on the WHO web site.
Agreed, hard to find evidence it leaked, but 96% match???, and it's the only lab in the world holding the samples, which means it's highly likely it leaked from the lab (and perhaps into the market), not the other way round. The lab samples were collected from caves far away from the market.
But we will never know because the market has already been demolished. You'd think the CCP would secure it for further investigation if they truly think the virus originated from there.
bass4funk
I’m not so sure I’m buying that story. The Chinese have been eating bats and other weird animals for a long time and nothing happened and now all of a sudden? Now given Chinese history of NOT being transparent I’ll take everything they say with a grain of salt. I personally believe that the Chinese could have been experimenting with some sort of biological agent for possible military use and it got out of hand or they were creating something to deliberately throw the economy, particularly the US economy in turmoil since this is an election year and the Chinese know that Trump’s biggest asset is the economy and they do want to negotiate with someone that will fold like the last 3 previous Presidents that fall in line with what it wants and although I’m not a big believer in conspiracy theories, it’s something to consider and could I be wrong? Sure, but the timing of all this seems very, very suspicious.
JenniSchiebel
That's because the coronavirus isn't one. Only something like 0.001% of the world's population has it. And of those, the vast majority are recovering after experiencing only relatively mild symptoms.
Like seemingly so many other things these days, this is mostly a media-fueled panic attack.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't take it seriously. But just take normal precautions. Wash your hands. Stay home and/or go to a doctor/hospital if you have symptoms. Get plenty of rest. Exercise. Eat a well-balanced diet.
And otherwise, just go about your business. You're more likely to die getting hit by a car or something.
Sh1mon M4sada
But one can rule out it came from the market. Assuming the CCP is a competent, truth telling ruler. They would have outlawed consumption of exotic wildlife from the SARS lesson.
We are talking:
96% match +
Proximity of the Wuhan P4 lab to ground zero +
The Wuhan lab was built by people with no experience in building highest level bio-hazard facilities, from French construction documents +
No international oversight during construction +
It was only certified domestically by Chinese institution.
Sh1mon M4sada
It's framed as a hypothetical, ie, IF they're competent, they would have shutdown all wildlife markets after SARS. They didn't.
They can't have it both ways, ie Wuhan lab is competent, as well as CCP leadership competent. One of them is incompetent for this outbreak to have occurred.
Sh1mon M4sada
You need to go back at least one post.
I'm trying to paint a scenario where it just isn't plausible the virus came from the market because the CCP wouldn't want to be portrayed as not having learnt the SARS lesson.
Sh1mon M4sada
Sigh, I'm not trying to. I'm trying to paint a picture of incompetence, in Beijing, or in Wuhan.
bass4funk
True, no actual evidence, but I definitely am skeptical about the bat and pangolin cause.
bass4funk
You and I don’t know that.
Not like this one.
And you can believe that if you want, but I believe in a different possible scenario
I feel something very different about this virus.
bass4funk
I truly agree with that, you are absolutely right.
Sh1mon M4sada
first result in google.
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf
WilliB
Burning Bush:
Actually, you don´t know that, since not everybody is tested and many infected people have no symptoms. Afaic, it is a) clear that this thing is out there and will be with us for a while, and b) it is not end of the world.
(More likely the end of toilet paper, if the current hysteria continues.)
bass4funk
Not when it comes from the Chinese.