World Health Organization Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

WHO Report: Wildlife Farms, Not Market, Likely Source Of Coronavirus Pandemic

By NPR News March 29, 2021

World Health Organization investigative team member Peter Daszak (shown here during a trip to China in February) tells NPR that the group's report calls for additional research on farms that breed exotic animals in southern China. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

The highly anticipated World Health Organization report on the origins of the coronavirus that sparked a global pandemic is due out Tuesday. NPR has obtained an early copy. According to the report, data suggests that the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was not the original source of the outbreak.Read More

White House: China And WHO Need To ‘Step Up’ On Investigation Into Origin Of Pandemic

By NPR News February 21, 2021

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, seen here during a press briefing on Feb. 4, told CBS the World Health Organization has more work to do to get to the bottom of where the coronavirus emerged. CREDIT: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Biden's national security adviser said Sunday that the administration has concerns over the data China has provided to the World Health Organization regarding the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.Read More

Virologist: WHO Team Found No ‘Credible Link’ Between Wuhan Labs, COVID-19

By NPR News February 16, 2021

Marion Koopmans was part of a WHO team that traveled to Wuhan to investigate the start of the coronavirus pandemic. She tells NPR that the Wuhan seafood market was "not the whole story." Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

The WHO team's main public conclusion so far is that it's "extremely unlikely" that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan. The scientists think the virus most likely started in bats, then jumped to other animals, then to humans.Read More

‘Everything Broke’: Global Health Leaders On What Went Wrong In The Pandemic

By NPR News January 26, 2021

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - World Health Organization head

How to make sure the world is never so devastated by another pandemic? Health officials from around the globe have been vigorously discussing that question over the past week at the annual meeting of the World Health Organization's Executive Board. The members, whose nine-day-long, mostly virtual gathering concludes on Tuesday, have heard recommendations from four separate Read More

WHO Trial Finds Remdesivir Has ‘No Meaningful Effect’ In COVID-19 Patients

By NPR News November 21, 2020

Boxes containing vials of remdesivir at a pharmaceutical company in Giza, Egypt. CREDIT: Fadel Dawood/DPA/Picture Alliance via Getty Images

The medicine is one of the few to win regulatory approval as a treatment for the disease, but has fallen out of favor with the health authority. Read More

China Joins WHO-Led Global Coronavirus Vaccine Effort As U.S. Sits It Out

By NPR News October 13, 2020

A worker feeds vials for production of a vaccine for COVID-19 at the SinoVac vaccine factory in Beijing. China said on Friday that it is joining the COVID-19 vaccine alliance known as COVAX. Ng Han Guan/AP

The Chinese foreign ministry said it took this step "to uphold the concept of a shared community of health for all and to honor its commitment to turn COVID-19 vaccines into a global public good."Read More

Global Coronavirus Case Count Surpasses 20 Million

By NPR News August 10, 2020

A mural in Chennai, India, celebrates workers on the front lines against the coronavirus pandemic. The global case count crossed the 20 million threshold on Monday, with the U.S., Brazil and India in the lead. Arun Sankar/AFP via Getty Images

According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 20 million people worldwide have tested positive for the virus. The milestone comes almost exactly five months after the WHO declared it a pandemic.Read More

WHO Halts Hydroxychloroquine Trial Over Safety Concerns

By NPR News May 25, 2020

A pharmacy tech pours out pills of hydroxychloroquine May 20 at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, on May 20, 2020. After a study found COVID-19 patients using the drug were dying at higher rates, the World Health Organization announced it would suspend its clinical trial. CREDIT: George Frey/AFP via Getty Images

The WHO cited a scientific study published last week suggesting that proposed COVID-19 drug hydroxychloroqine may do more harm than good in halting its study to review data.Read More

Study: U.S. Could Have Saved 36,000 Lives If Social Distancing Started 1 Week Earlier

By NPR News May 22, 2020

As late as March 17, people eat at a restaurant along Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, Fla., several days after President Trump declared a national emergency.

The analysis from Columbia University focused on the period from March 15 to May 3, when states and counties implemented "measures enforcing social distancing and restricting individual contact."Read More

World Leaders Pledge $8 Billion To Fight COVID-19; U.S. Skips Meeting

By NPR News May 5, 2020

"Today the world showed extraordinary unity for the common good," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. The U.S. was conspicuously absent from the event.Read More

A Timeline Of Coronavirus Comments From President Trump And The World Health Organization

By NPR News April 15, 2020

President Trump at the daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, when he declared his intent to halt funding to the World Health Organization, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO. Alex Brandon/AP; Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

How did the president respond to key moments during the pandemic? And how did representatives of the World Health Organization respond during the same period?Read More

Coronavirus: COVID-19 Is Now Officially A Pandemic, WHO Says

By NPR News March 11, 2020

The World Health Organization called the COVID-19 viral disease a pandemic Wednesday. Here, workers in Spain place a medical mask on a figure that was to be part of the Fallas festival in Valencia. The festival has been canceled over the coronavirus outbreak. Alberto Saiz/AP

It's the first time the WHO has called an outbreak a pandemic since the H1N1 "swine flu" in 2009.Read More