Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, is co-chair of the WHO-backed Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. A independent panel examining the global response to the coronavorus outbreak says it’s looking into whether the World Health Organization has the right mandate, powers, capacities and financing to deliver on pandemic preparedness and response. Clark, joined by co-chair and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, said the panel wants to establish an “accurate chronology” of the events around the emergence of the deadly virus, and review national strategies, which have been very divergent. The Trump administration has blasted WHO’s response to the pandemic, faulting it for providing allegedly flawed, inconsistent advice and for bowing too much to China as Beijing explained its handling of the outbreak in the city of Wuhan. But President-elect Joe Biden has said he plans to keep the United States in the U.N. health organization.-AP

Source: The Standard November 10, 2020 13:52 UTC