WHO refuses to declare coronavirus pandemic

London. As the cases of coronaviruses increase dramatically in Italy, Iran, South Korea, the United States and other regions, many scientists argue that the world is affected by a pandemic, a serious global outbreak.

Until now, the World Health Organization has refused to use the term “pandemic,” which could frighten the world even more and cause despair in some countries.

“If we are not convinced that it is uncontrollable, why should we call it a pandemic,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus days ago.

The UN health agency has said that a pandemic is a situation in which a new virus causes “sustained outbreaks in communities” in at least two regions of the world.

Many experts say that this threshold has been exceeded for a long time: the virus initially identified in China spreads freely in at least four regions, has reached all continents except Antarctica and its spread seems inevitable. The disease has managed to stand up and spread rapidly even in countries with relatively solid public health systems.

On Friday a new milestone was reached with more than 100,000 infected in the world, much more than those of SARS, MERS or Ebola in recent years.

“It seems quite obvious that we are in a pandemic and I don’t know why WHO is reluctant to call it that,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the University of Minnesota.

Experts recognize that the declaration of a pandemic carries political dangers because it can shake markets, cause even more drastic restrictions on travel and commerce and stigmatize people from affected regions. WHO was criticized for describing the 2009 swine flu outbreak as a pandemic. But experts say declaring the current crisis a pandemic would encourage countries to prepare for the eventual arrival of the virus.

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