In general, I think the academic field of misinformation is fighting the last war. Social media disinformation is real, but nothing compared to the WHO/CDC crisis which will go down in history as one of the biggest failures in their history, if not the biggest.
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The WHO was never going to be the global pub health coordinator. WHO is a convener of govts, a place where nat'l data is collated & compared, consensus best practices agreed. It does not have power OVER member states. It can't force countries to do anything, by design.
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Yes but they also didn’t have to misinform us on the most important thing. I realize the pressures they are under but this was inexcusable. Knowing what they did know, they at least could’ve tried to hedge to give the world time. Also note they change position when China does.
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Agreed, but that gets back to money and power. How was CDC getting access to info? They don't have their own reliable sources of data. They have to rely on China & China plays hard ball. WHO relies on voluntary contributions for 80% of budget... Making the WHO idependent is hard!
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There was credible and direct information from other nations with deep links to Wuhan that was crystal clear. It was worse than not being independent, which I get. They falsely reassured the world even though they knew. Given the death toll, it is inexcusable.
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Then you have to think about what we are going to replace with WHO with. WHO behavior was predictable and rational from an org perspective. They failed to warn strongly enuf, early enuf publicly. But they did report, daily as of 1/23. Wld we have been better off w/out WHO?
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You can make the same argument about any authority that misinforms though. I’m not calling for abolishing the WHO. But recognizing how badly they failed during the one event they were set up for is key to reform. They failed us in a pandemic!!!
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I've lost the thread... I agree that WHO were not entirely transparent & honest, but the problem is about institutional design. We cannot just blame China or see it as moral failing of the WHO. The way we fund IOs, the authority we do/not give them are choices w consequences.
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Well, when it's the WHO and they have credible and timely information about human-to-human transmission and instead parrot the dangerously false lie coming out of one government and we get a pandemic, I'm gonna say that's a moral failing. I can also analyze all the subtle points.
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I don't believe I said anything about your intellect. Apologies if you took it that way. I care about how we do better as an int'l community next time and what needs to change in the way we collect share & verify info. WHO is too weak & political. Fixing that is a challenge.
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No I’m not offended. I’m just saying there’s a lot of failings going on!
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