{"id":24171,"date":"2020-04-21T14:02:07","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T08:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/who-head-warns-worst-of-virus-is-still-ahead\/"},"modified":"2020-04-21T14:02:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T08:32:07","slug":"who-head-warns-worst-of-virus-is-still-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=24171","title":{"rendered":"WHO head warns worst of virus is still ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AP<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GENEVA<\/strong> \u2014 The World Health Organization chief warned Monday that \u201cthe worst is yet ahead of us\u201d in the coronavirus outbreak, reviving the alarm just as many countries ease restrictive measures aimed at reducing its spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didn\u2019t specify why he believes the outbreak that has infected some 2.5 million people and killed over 166,000 could get worse. He and others, however, have previously pointed to the likely future spread of the illness through Africa, where health systems are far less developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrust us. The worst is yet ahead of us,\u201d Tedros told reporters from WHO headquarters in Geneva. \u201cLet\u2019s prevent this tragedy. It\u2019s a virus that many people still don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Asian and European governments have gradually eased or started relaxing \u201clockdown\u201d measures like quarantines, school and business closures and restrictions on public gatherings, citing a decline in the growth of COVID-19 case counts and deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tedros and his agency have been on the defensive after President Donald Trump of the United States \u2014 the WHO\u2019s biggest single donor \u2014 last week ordered a halt to U.S. funding for the agency, alleging that it botched the early response to the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among other things, Trump insisted WHO had failed to adequately share \u201cin a timely and transparent\u201d way information about the outbreak after it erupted in China late last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tedros said: \u201cThere is no secret in WHO because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous. It\u2019s a health issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis virus is dangerous. It exploits cracks between us when we have differences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tedros said U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers have been seconded to work with his agency, suggesting that was a sign of WHO\u2019s transparency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving CDC staff (at WHO) means there is nothing hidden from the U.S. from Day One\u201d Tedros said. \u201cOur CDC colleagues also know that we give information immediately to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of his starkest comparisons yet, the U.N. health agency chief also alluded to the so-called Spanish flu more than a century ago, saying the coronavirus has a \u201cvery dangerous combination \u2026 like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tedros called the illness \u201cPublic Enemy No. 1,\u201d and said: \u201cWe have been warning from Day One: This is a devil that everybody should fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AP GENEVA \u2014 The World Health Organization chief warned Monday that \u201cthe worst is yet ahead of us\u201d in the coronavirus outbreak, reviving the alarm just as many countries ease restrictive measures aimed at reducing its spread. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didn\u2019t specify why he believes the outbreak that has infected some 2.5 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}