FILE - Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO, speaks at the Reaching The Last Mile Forum on Nov. 19, 2019, at the Louvre in Abu Dhabi.(Jonathan Gibbons/Reaching the Last Mile Forum via AP Images)
The head of the World Health Organization says he will begin an independent evaluation of the U.N. health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic “at the earliest appropriate moment.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the pledge Monday after an independent oversight advisory body published its first interim report about the U.N. health agency’s response to COVID-19 from January to April.
The 11-page report raised questions such as whether WHO’s warning system for alerting the world to outbreaks is adequate, and suggested member states might need to “reassess” WHO’s role in providing travel advice to countries.
The advisory body’s review and recommendations appeared unlikely to appease the United States administration, which has been scathing in its criticism of WHO — in part over President Donald Trump’s allegation that it had criticized a U.S. travel ban that he ordered on people arriving from China, where the outbreak first appeared late last year.
Trump ordered a temporary suspension of funding for WHO from the United States — the health agency’s biggest single donor — pending a review of its early response. But the review panel, echoing comments from many countries, said such a review during the “heat of the response” could hurt WHO’s ability to respond to it.
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Meet the new generation running for office in the midterm elections. Maxwell Frost, a 24-year-old Democrat, is the youngest candidate running for Florida’s 10th congressional district. A member of Gen Z (those born after 1996) Frost spoke to Cheddar about objectives that he believes are top of mind for his age bracket, including tackling gun violence, healthcare for all, and LGBTQ+ rights, especially in light of his state's recently enacted, so-called “Don’t Say Gay" law.
President Biden has announced a historic release of oil from the U.S. reserves in an attempt to cut down surging gas prices across the country. The administration will release 1 million barrels of oil per day for the next six months, marking the largest withdrawal in the nearly 50-year history of the country's emergency supply of oil. Patrick DeHaan, Head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, breaks down why the Biden administration is making this unprecedented move, and what impact it could have on prices at the pump.
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Catching you up on what you need to know on April 5, 2022, with Biden's call for a war crimes trial for Putin, another arrest made in the Sacramento mass shooting, NYC rolling out a campaign against Florida’s "Don’t Say Gay" bill, an aluminum shortage potentially affecting beer and cat food cans, and more.
