Hacker News Reader

Comment by ve55 | Hacker News Reader

I am continually seeing headlines from the WHO that seem to be, well, not only obvious, but delayed and unhelpful. Yesterday I saw that they said 'the Pandemic is accelerating'. I recall many wonderful tweets that have been not only helpful, but possibly significantly harmful, as anyone is happy to cite the WHO when they say things like normal people do not need masks, stigma is worse than the virus, and so on (For example: https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152 https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1234095938555260929 https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1233418231261646849 ), and I'm honestly wondering if they have even been a net-positive for this situation overall. Am I missing something here?

View on HN

> normal people do not need masks

Normal (i.e. non-sick) people don't need masks, this is good advice. As a matter of fact buying masks is actively harmful, because you are depriving people who do need them (the sick and their caregivers).

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/prevention...

(No comment on the rest of the tweets though)

If the US had a proper supply of masks, it would certainly be nicer to see them wearing them, though. But you're correct that given how terrible the supply seems to be, it might be the best thing to say.

If masks were plentiful, non-sick people should wear masks in this case, because contagion starts before symptoms.

Im not sure what you expect WHO to be? Their purpose is not to be on the forefront of any news. The point is to be a global authority on the matter, that can do research and weigh external research to provide authoritative conclusions/statements to the people everywhere around the world.

yes WHO woefully mishandled the situation, from underestimating the gravity of the situation and arguing against closing borders in january, to delays declaring a pandemic. Thankfully , countries acted independently

Didn’t WHO initially say that while working with the Chinese they determined it was not spreadable through contact of items?

EDIT: yes, of pets and items:

> When asked, "Is it safe to receive letters and parcels from China?" [WHO] Answered, "Coronaviruses are safe because they do not survive long on letters and other objects."

> In response to the question `` whether a new coronavirus can spread from pets '', `` at present there is no evidence that pets such as dogs and cats can be infected with the new coronavirus '' is.

There is also Taiwan showing that its likely China is misleading the WHO (would China ever do that!?)

EDIT: op added "of items" to his question, dramatically changing it

Even without it though, yes: https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152?ref_src=t...

That’s even worse than what I was saying.

Why would the WHO have any credibility after this?

That's the advantage of a decentralized system. Without everyone following centralized orders if the central authority's wrong not everyone gets screwed. The iconoclasts might end up ahead, or they might end up behind, but at least there's a bit of experimentation. That's probably the best argument against a global government in sci-fi. Having all of humanity under the same government is putting all your eggs in one basket.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com