I find it absolutely remarkable how the two leading public health organizations – the WHO and the CDC – have effectively self-destructed in the face of a global pandemic.
The WHO allowed itself to be bamboozled by the Chinese government and wasted valuable time playing semantics. Now with the loss of the US membership the WHO’s reputation and value have degraded immeasurably.
The CDC proved to be absolutely incapable of outlining even the most basic guidelines for dealing with the spread of the virus, prompting calls to ignore its advice entirely.1 The common thread in the failures of these two formerly respected and influential organizations is their excessive bureaucracy and their inherent financial insecurity.
Funding for the WHO comes disproportionally from government and private sources in the US and the UK.2 The CDC’s funding is far opaquer and involves a multitude of government and private sources, including big pharma.3
In other words, these two health organizations cannot be relied upon to dispense sound medical advice under political and financial pressure, their medical expertise notwithstanding.
- Varmus, H., & Shah, R. (2020, August 31). It Has Come to This: Ignore the C.D.C. Retrieved September 02, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/opinion/cdc-testing-coronavirus.html
- How WHO is funded. (n.d.). Retrieved September 02, 2020, from https://www.who.int/about/planning-finance-and-accountability/how-who-is-funded
- Ahle, S. (2019, November 18). CDC Pressed to Acknowledge Industry Funding. Retrieved September 02, 2020, from https://www.ashclinicalnews.org/online-exclusives/cdc-pressed-acknowledge-industry-funding/
