Pandemic could have been prevented: Expert panel on WHO's handling of Covid

Independent panel's report says WHO should have declared emergency sooner, limited travel; calls for new global system to investigate disease outbreaks

 A new transparent global system should be set up for probing disease outbreaks, empowering the World Health Organization to deploy investigators at short-notice and reveal findings, a COVID-19 pandemic review panel said on Wednesday.
 

The WHO should have declared the new coronavirus outbreak in China an international emergency earlier than Jan. 30, 2020, but the next month was "lost" as countries failed to take strong measures to halt spread of the respiratory pathogen, it said.
 

The independent experts, in a major report on the handling of the pandemic, called for bold WHO reforms and revitalising national preparedness plans to prevent