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.

 Why We Need the World Health Organization, Despite Its Flaws

Today’s WHO, like all multinational institutions working in politically sensitive areas, has big flaws. Like any U.N. agency, it can’t function without the goodwill of the governments it must rely upon for access. The WHO can be accused of not calling out China for its first critical response to this virus, but the organization could not study the virus from outside Wuhan. Call Beijing a liar, and the resulting eviction of WHO officials from China could kill millions.

 With COVID-19, World Health Organisation's Fall from Grace Is Complete

In complete contrast to its founding ideals, the WHO is now captured by wealthy countries and corporations at the cost of millions of poor globally.

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.

Can the WHO Restore Credibility After Its Handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic suggests that the WHO will have to revisit its response to the crisis once it is finally over.

China Isn’t Helping Its Credibility or the WHO’s

The WHO must now demonstrate its autonomy from China’s political agenda if it is to salvage its credibility as the pre-eminent global health authority.

Explainer: Who's WHO? The World Health Organization under scrutiny

Like a lot of international institutions, the WHO suffers from false perceptions about its scope and resources.

The effect of COVID-19 on public confidence in the World Health Organization: a natural experiment among 40 countries

We found that COVID-19 was associated with a decline in people’s trust in the WHO at the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, which raises the risk that such a global health crisis could undermine public trust in the WHO. Of note, the confidence of men declined more than that of women.

The U.S. Government and the World Health Organization

The agency has played a key role in a number of global health achievements, such as the Alma-Ata Declaration on primary health care (1978), the eradication of smallpox (formally recognized in 1980), the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (adopted in 2003), and the 2005 revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR), an international agreement that outlines roles and responsibilities in preparing for and responding to international health emergencies.

The WHO has failed the world in its pandemic response

The world needs the WHO. But if the agency is to spearhead international health policy and respond to disease outbreaks effectively, it must pursue deep reforms aimed at broadening its jurisdiction and authority. That won’t happen unless and until the WHO rebuilds its credibility, beginning with new leadership.

The World Health Organization (WHO): A Problem of Trust

The standard history of the WHO is that it was founded in 1948 by 61 nation-states, who also financed the organization. Parsons, on the other hand, shows that from the very start the WHO was penetrated by private industry.

The World Health Organization and Pandemic Politics

The good, the bad, and an ugly future for global health.

Why the WHO took two years to say COVID is airborne

Early in the pandemic, the World Health Organization stated that SARS-CoV-2 was not transmitted through the air. That mistake and the prolonged process of correcting it sowed confusion and raises questions about what will happen in the next pandemic.