STS-134

This is a good one to listen to (not watch). Like, download it using youtube-dl and extract the audio, put it on your phone, and listen to it while you drive. That's what I do.

They called out the WHO for:
- Not declaring a PHEIC as soon as it was confirmed that the virus was outside of China *and* it was known to be human-to-human transmittable

- Using language in its statement (which I found here: https://www.who.int/docs/default-sou...t-30012020.pdf) that "WHO doesn’t recommend, and actually opposes, any restrictions for travel and trade or other measures against China." Which is exactly what I criticized them for, since in the same statement, they praise China's handling of the crisis, which includes closing entire cities and restricting travel inside its own borders.
They also critized this quote:
"Let me be clear. This declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China. On the contrary, WHO continues to have the confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak. I’ll repeat this. Let me be clear. This declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China. On the contrary. WHO continues to have confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak. As you know, I was in China just a few days ago, where I met with President Xi Jinping. I left in absolutely no doubt about China’s commitment to transparency and to protecting the world’s people."
First, what does a declaration of a PHEIC have to do with whether you're confident (or not) in anyone's abilities to control an outbreak? Either it's an emergency or it's not, and if it's an emergency, then you do whatever it takes to stop it.

- Suggesting that borders don't need to be closed to halt the spread of this virus, citing the need for "sharing information". As if people are actually needed to physically carry information in the information age. Then criticized the CCP for blocking social media and hampering the flow of information at the same time. It's literally the Chinese government that is preventing the sharing of information about this virus (by blocking social media/deleting posts/not being transparent) and yet, the WHO cites the need for open borders for "sharing information". One of them then said, "are we living in the stone age"? Furthermore, they pointed out that medical supplies do not need commercial flights to be brought in, as they can be brought in on cargo planes, without 200+ humans who could be carrying the virus on the same plane.

- Suggesting that you need to take into account the "economic impacts" of restricting travel. WHO is not the WTO, and their job is to protect the public health.

For my own analysis of that statement, I'm going to pull a quote from the above linked statement (not mentioned in the video):
"We would have seen many more cases outside China by now - and probably deaths - if it were not for the government’s efforts and the progress they have made to protect their own people and the people of the world. The speed with which China detected the outbreak, isolated the virus, sequenced the genome, and shared it with WHO and the world are very impressive, and beyond words. So is China’s commitment to transparency and to supporting other countries. In many ways, China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response, and it’s not an exaggeration." Seriously? The Chinese authorities sat on their asses for over 3 weeks while the virus spread, silenced those who were trying to tell the truth, and tried to sweep this under the rug, and the WHO calls this "a new standard for outbreak response"? They ENDANGERED their own people by refusing to release information within Wuhan at the end of December. They authorities obviously knew they were dealing with something serious because they shut down the wet market suspected of harboring the virus on January 1. Except they lied and told people it was for "renovations". WHO should be disbanded if they're going to put out statements like that. They're not being useful at all.