WHO

Explainer: What Does The World Health Organization Do?

The World Health Organization describes its job as "the global guardian of health." It is now possibly facing the most devastating global health threat in its 72-year history: the coronavirus pandemic. WHO is devoting hundreds of millions of dollars and an all-hands-on-deck approach to the effort to vanquish the virus. And it is being accused of failing to uphold its mission.

Listen: It’s a Small World Health Organization

The WHO has also become more action-oriented, so it’s not just committees classifying diseases. WHO does a lot of work with disease-eradication and disease-control programs. The most successful one was smallpox, a disease we no longer have. It’s the biggest achievement in the history of the WHO. Some say the biggest achievement of humanity in the 20th century was the eradication of that disease.

The WHO Shouldn’t Be a Plaything for Great Powers

Trump’s defunding ploy will only make the organization’s problems worse.

W.H.O.’s Identity Crisis

W.H.O., the world’s most important global health organization, is in peril and is suffering from an identity crisis. Some important tasks have shifted to other organizations, like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which is financed by the Gates Foundation. The W.H.O. has also been charged with missteps in doing what it should do best: coping with epidemics, including the 2014 Ebola epidemic and last year’s yellow fever epidemic in Africa. The organization, which gets about a third of its $2.2 billion annual budget from member countries, is also facing a severe funding shortfall.

Former C.D.C. Officials: The W.H.O. Is Our Best Bet

They say partnership with the agency is critical to global public health programs. And doctors say it’s our best chance in fighting the pandemic.

How China Deceived the WHO

"They actually compounded Chinese authorities’ misinformation for a few weeks. That is, to me, unforgivable.”

How to fix the WHO, according to an expert

President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization won’t change it. Here’s what might.

Testing Traditions

The World Health Organization has failed to apply scientific rigor to traditional medicines. That’s bad for everyone.

What the W.H.O. Does, and How U.S. Funding Cuts Could Affect It

Though President Trump’s decision to halt funding centered on the W.H.O.’s response to the coronavirus, the cut could affect programs like polio eradication and developing vaccines.

When disasters like Ebola hit, the world needs the World Health Organization. And it's failing.

In theory, the WHO still has a crucial role to play in responding to deadly disease epidemics; it's the only global body that can declare a pandemic and mobilize internationally in the face of health threats such as Ebola. But to do so, it will have to change radically.

How WHO Lost Its Way

Some change inevitably will come to the World Health Organization (WHO) after its deadly failures during the Covid-19 pandemic. But real reform will require more than technocratic tweaks, and member states should focus on fundamental questions about the agency’s purpose.

WHO

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