Securing independence imperative for World Health Organization, says Italian whistleblower

The World Health
Organization should do what is required to safeguard its independence in order
to maintain credibility, said an official, who recently accused the United Nations
agency of having censored a report assessing Italy’s coronavirus response, AFP
reported.

The official, Francesco Zambon, has become a party to an internal controversy regarding
his earlier complaint, which stated that the UN agency retracted the study in view
of a request made by an Italian higher official who would face embarrassment had
the study been published.

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While both the international
health watchdog and the concerned higher up have denied any part of this to be true,
Zambon notes that he sees the incident as a warning for WHO, as the agency might
have to deal with wider consequences emerging in future from its failure to
address the issue properly.

“Now that we
are about to go on mission to China, we must be sure that the WHO is free of
any external influence, otherwise its independence is at risk,” AFP quoted
Zambon as saying regarding the incident in a telephone interview.

WHO has previously
faced criticism from US-quarters accusing it of being too soft on China, which,
denied entry to a group of WHO experts earlier this week, appearing to be
reluctant to let an independent investigation continue.

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Zambon, 47,
recently coordinated the completion of the 102-page document with Italy’s
pandemic response listed in it until it was withdrawn a day after its release
on May 13, which, the former says, is to avoid any misgivings coming the way of
Ranieri Guerra, a top WHO official who also occupied a key position in the country’s
pandemic planning previously.