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Pandemic preparedness and responses: WHO to turn to in a crisis?
As the world struggles to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, political and health leaders have turned a critical eye towards the World Health Organization and its handling of the outbreak. It has long been apparent that the massive remit and governance structure, along with reliance on funding from multiple entities with often competing priorities can handcuff the agency in situations where swift decisive action is needed most. However, politically motivated threats to withdraw funding, are likely to exacerbate, rather than alleviate, these issues.
In this month's Editorial, the PLOS Medicine Editors discuss WHO's role in pandemic responses, its capabilities and limitations, and the balance that governments must seek to both support and hold the agency accountable as an essential partner in promoting world health.
Image Credit: Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Pixabay
Citation: (2020) PLoS Medicine Issue Image | Vol. 17(5) June 2020. PLoS Med 17(5): ev17.i05. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pmed.v17.i05
Published: June 19, 2020
Copyright: © 2020 . This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
As the world struggles to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, political and health leaders have turned a critical eye towards the World Health Organization and its handling of the outbreak. It has long been apparent that the massive remit and governance structure, along with reliance on funding from multiple entities with often competing priorities can handcuff the agency in situations where swift decisive action is needed most. However, politically motivated threats to withdraw funding, are likely to exacerbate, rather than alleviate, these issues.
In this month's Editorial, the PLOS Medicine Editors discuss WHO's role in pandemic responses, its capabilities and limitations, and the balance that governments must seek to both support and hold the agency accountable as an essential partner in promoting world health.
Image Credit: Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Pixabay