our society. differently. and. this culture. starts marching on t.w. . right now what we have to do is to do everything we can to get out of the from david the use of the chinese communist party with the use of the global public actually to date or not sit down to a single country why has there been no formal and public protest about china withholding the data you asked for why don't you explain that to me we are these are focused on saving light the world health organization is under fire from governments in the songs it's over venus and with china during the pandemic many think it's been too soft on beijing i'm too willing to accept everything it's told my guest this week

from copenhagen is the european regional director for the w h o m cool guy does his organization of the ground up to the chinese when it needs to . come to school go welcome to conflict zone your recent fact finding mission in war has provoked a firestorm of criticism from many scientists and others around the world complaining that your messaging seems to give far too much support to china's preferred narratives which are neither impartial nor objective why are you doing that. well let me remind you that i'm directing that ekta for the degree to repin region which covers the 53 european member states right in china doesn't belong to that one but if i speak from let's say a generic point of view did

a poor thing is being written up as if we are speaking no will be made available and if we take it to the issue of transparency accountability and reinforcement of the international regulations that's globally speaking certainly one of the main points that the independent panel for pandemic preparedness and review is looking at right now well you don't seem that independent because you know you're pushing the notion the virus may have circulated elsewhere outside china before it was identified in woodland and that is one of beijing's favorite scenarios at the moment this idea was even included in your missions terms of reference document and this had to agreed be agreed by the chinese government before you were actually allowed into the country so you were towing china's line right from the start weren't you well. please allow me to remind you i am the region director for the 53

european member states not a director general in geneva i think this question would be very best versed to were told you need for the specific region but let me make a more generic point here that the world health organization is not the world health inspector it we are a government by de world's nations right and that's something $500.00 pounds as per . your credibility is on the line here your credibility has been questioned. last year japan's deputy prime minister actually called you the chinese health organization as opposed to the world health organization. so aren't you worried about your credibility what's happening to him is that in the world health organization is a technical organization and from the very beginning dubnyk show has been acting fast if you look at the 1st report was sent to the ritual the 31st of december

immediately after debris actually triggered the structure it's called incident management structure to get ready for an alarm at the highest level that is what's happening and of course there will be what we call a very for in sick after action review who said what who said what to do i has a right now i understand that and will for your full report your full report is still awaited but up until this point you've you've upset a lot of people the american bio safety expert and professor of chemical biology for instance richard a bright spot for many when he called your mission a sure rod it has no credibility he said its members were willing in the end they were at least one case eager participants in this information to pre-determined pre-ordained purpose of your mission was to raise the false flag proposal that the

virus originated outside china and arrived in through international travel or internationally shipped frozen food no serious person he said. was if i were a civilization. right 02 points if i made the 1st one is still in the midst of the pandemic so we are focused on saving lights including a global roll out of the vaccination number 2 as i am responsible for european region we already are taking forward very important lessons learnt from the pandemic now you may be taking forward lessons but you're upsetting a lot of people in the process the white house itself the biden and ministrations said last month we have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them the fact is this mission of yours that well may actually have made things worse my dead relatives i don't want to speculate because i think that would be

unfair as my territory is the 53 member state over here but as i was mentioning the degree to a director general was tasked by the work of assembly last year to establish a independent panel for pandemic preparedness and review which has delivered its 1st interim 2nd interim report recently to the executive board and they for sure will be doing the job what we're doing here in the region every single day i'm talking to ministers to prime minister to presidents right from what they make at night and to help them to contain the virus where everybody is awake at night wondering whether they will get to the bottom of the central question which is how did this outbreak 1st a car now at one point during your mission to china china refused to hand over information that the w.h.o. had been requesting for some time my question to you is why did the organization

not insist on access to all relevant data before you actually went to china. well i think that's a question of degree 2 or geneva but what will you quote you can't avoid in questions mr mr you represent the w.h.o. and therefore you have to sell what they're doing in china and their investigation to your european partners i'm asking how you can do this well they seem to be obvious holes right away this investigation has been proceeding. i have a mandate write a report to the 53 degree to european member states but of course we are part of a global organization absolutely right and that's why in any degree short of foreign i think germany has been quite straightforward on that one when it had the e.u. presidency and which is a very strong supporter of a double reform that there is an issue globally this accountability in the reinforcement of the international regulations particularly if countries or not

allowing independent mission or if they do not share data at the global level and that's something that has to be taken for the w.h.o. is as strong as the peace that we are giving to and as of today we are not set up to single out countries why why has there been no formal and public protest about china withholding the data you asked for why. can you explain that as i was mentioning the show is working with its member states it is governed by the world's nations to protect health know there is a independent panel which is looking vetted the mandate of the breakthrough should be strengthened and one of the main outcomes of the inn i must warn you that your attorney is now announcing over your opinion now of china withholding vital data that is standard practice standard practice to ask for in the case of

a an outbreak of a pandemic now do you prioritize 2500000 people around the world who are now dead from this virus well over 100000000 infected or are you just content to satisfy the whims and desires of the chinese communist party which is more important for you do you serve the chinese communist party or do you serve the global public because it doesn't look as though you serve the public at the moment i am serving there tim i am serving as i have told a number of times now the 53 dublin utopian member states right that's what i'm busy with working around the clock with the states are to get it and there is a degree childer form which will be decided by the work of assembly inmate right now what we have to do is to do everything we can to get out of the pandemic and how do we do it number one scaling up defection nation effort very important number 2 to be very vigilant that the mutants do not decrease the efficacy of finance

asking understand i understand. about that but you're not answering my questions which are focused on your mission to china and the concerns that it has raised clear concerns internationally both in europe and america now in the course of the visit for china is not that it's not my mission team this is not mine mission this is a mission of the world which has. been decided by the world health assembly you were very kind of our village pocono ration in europe with a crew you represent the world health organization in your many people in europe are very concerned that this mission wasn't independent wasn't objective and hasn't done a proper job in will right and i wanted as a regular station right to insist well what i'm doing see point number one the brit show has been acting fast from the very moment that the report came out of one

number one number 2 the degree to repin region is already acting upon lessons learned the number 3 we are taking forward already the most crucial issue which is to get out of the pandemic that is de top priority that i am busy with as the leader of the director europe in the 50 member states than that time and i understand that i want to talk about the mission to hand in the course of their visit your team poured cold water on the theory that the virus may have leaked from awu hand laboratory and caused the outbreak there they called it highly unlikely and that too has provoked a wave of condemnation from scientists across the world why is the theory of a leak from a were in the bar so unlikely as far as your team is concerned. well i would like to stick to my mandate of the 53 director european member state but of course i'm in contact with my colleagues right and the particularly the director of

the country office in china one of the best public health experts i know the geneva and i think really that we should give the mission the phone the quite this space to finish the report which will be followed by a press conference and then all this questions ben can be asked i think until the report is finalized that we should give them the space to look at the different heap of this really well we already have plenty of statements from the team plenty of statements from the team leader which have caused concern so we have to deal with what has been said already it goes to the heart of the credibility of your organization when there were questions raised about safety issues in. your team leader ben and barak said on february 8th that they were reassured by hearing of the high bio safety protocols in who hands laboratories what what else

were the chinese going to tell them where they're going to admit them and there they had safety problems well how naive this is this state i was not that i yes meant to represent me. sure but let's be straight forward here i'm responsible for the 53 member states do richard if you want you know concerns about this notion to were are you telling me that you have no concerns about absolutely no concerns we are meeting every 2 weeks with the director director general with the 6 regional directors as the global policy group to exchange and what are the lessons the lessons are number one no any country no any organization was ready for a pandemic of such magnitude i think that is the 1st thing and we have to work on that one the 2nd issue is that on them prepared this is a global public goods and that's why established the pan european commission on

health and sustainable development to keep a big health at the top of the political agenda and assert one which you have to work on is the trust of the people in science which are also discussed to dr anthony fauci recently because if the people lose their trust in science then we would be vulnerable for any future pandemic while the point is that the scientists are losing faith in you and there's international condemnation from scientists let me give you an example bruno come out from france's national center for scientific research said that by pouring cold water on scientific theories and pushing beijing's narratives the w.h.o. has been committing credibility suicide there were so many conflicts of interest and obfuscations in your team investigation he said it's as if you'd asked iran's president to lead an international check on his nuclear program you can hardly be indifferent can you to the kinds of criticisms that you're getting from scientists

. right we are absolutely not indifferent team i mean overly solid like this you sound like. no no absolutely not and absolutely not i mean leaving no one behind that's the core of the whole mission right and we need to look how to improve but let me remind you that degree cho it's like a good employee a government organization right so the member states are setting the agenda we try to identify the best practices to share the best practices but we are not calling our country snow it's up to the member states if they would like to revise the international has a glacial but i think we should not underestimate the fantastic work which has been doing by experts by the staff of the ritual giving every ounce of themselves day and night to try to get out of this pandemic and this is still to go to this hill to save lives and to suppress the transmission particularly with the rapid spread

of the mutants do you trust china does the w.h.o. trust china the over king with all member state that's not what i asked you and little that's not what i asked you i asked you whether the w.h.o. trusts the information that china gives you in say yes or no or hell say yes so they're going to stand right so china does not belong to the degree to a tipping region i mean that you have to acknowledge so i think that's not the whole thing about which you have not talk i'm talking about the w.h.o. as a whole the world health organization is a how would you represent in europe and i'm asking you a simple question which has a yes or no answer which you don't seem to want to answer does the w.h.o. trust what it information it gets from china that's a pretty simple question yes or no do you. absolutely and we have longstanding relationship with all doubly chill member states we have country offices in 156

countries the day after the 1st report was coming out of whom we were in touch with the chinese authorities but this is a evolutionary process even do one mission we not come back with all the answers more questions are giving rise to more questions and 2005 if i do as he said you don't have to do correctly you are saying absolutely you do trust the information you get from china is that right the overworking to get their hand in hand with all the member states we have been asking data we have been asking service to all member states but don't press me please particularly on the china mission because we have a region that ector in the west pacific region it would be very unfair from b. to answer those question into detail i have not been there that would be speculation so i am here working day and night with the 50 member states of the

region and i think i really would like to stick to that mandate well i want to ask you if you're so keen to say that you do trust china and you've been working closely with china china is one of the most strictly censored countries in the world so to accept anything they tell you without supporting evidence would be extremely risky you'd have to agree to that wouldn't you but i think again this is not a question to meet him right to me but it is a question to you i am what i'd be telling you represent the world health organization in europe you have to have and i think the most important thing that has hit the hit the w.h.o. in many years. sure but if you're federated organization right you have 3 levels over there i think this offer i have to acknowledge is quite unique in the united nations so we have a director headquartered in geneva we have the 6 regional offices and i am here representing the work of the men they from the 53 degrees member states

and that's what we're doing we acted fast in the european region even before the 1st case was attacked it in france we already put up 8 incident management structure and since then everyone has been repro filed into office over here learning lessons during the pandemic to improve public health infrastructure to get health at the top of the political agenda and to really move forward as the model and technical force toward universal health coverage yes but none of that is any good if you are not trusted if you are not trusted and you are not trusted at the moment and the u.s. state department acumen china china made with whom you are working closely it accused china of systematically preventing a transparent and thorough investigation of covert 900 origins choosing instead to devote enormous resources to deceit and this information now you as an organization has really sort of the can i say it can i just finish the question please you as an

organization have released information which china gave you without any warning that it comes from a sense and state so you are part of the problem aren't you if they have been if the u.s. state department is correct and china has been putting out in deceit and this information you have also put out deceit and this information. well the team you were mentioning a number of times the united states of america 2 weeks ago i had. investor of the united states of america here india office reach was very clearly expressing the tourist industry to ship of the directories office for europe and we see collaboration in many had to talk to the region director of the united states central control over dr anthony so that i felt a very strong level of trust every single day i had a conversation with the prime minister the president's the offer involved the youth

the civil society so maybe did we have to agree to disagree but i don't see how we can because the white house itself said last month as i pointed out earlier we have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the war have investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them that doesn't sound as though the white house is very impressed with what with what you've been doing doesn't. there is a there is a process in place not him and i think we have to give the process ample time to do . its job and meanwhile what we really have to focus on i mean we saw a decrease in the number of cases a decrease in the number of deaths but no we see a resurgence and we see a faster in smith's ability of the mutants the people are very very tired of the public and restrictions and i think this is the top priority as of today let's get this around the table and then after which we will do a forensic examination what happened what could have been done better what went

wrong and we're very open minded after the able old break degree chill tremendously to 4 and bitter debate your health emergency program but right no the focus is on saving lives and this can only be done. effort him leaving no one behind and this collective effort can only function if there's trust in it and i'm telling you and the scientists that i've been quoting and others i mean. telling you that that trust isn't there and one of the reasons that trust isn't there is that during the course of this pandemic you have repeatedly thank to beijing for sharing the map of the genetic map of the virus immediately you said which wasn't true and you said its work and commitment to transparency were very impressive and beyond words that was a gross distortion wasn't it to praise china for transparency knowing how it's threatened and harassed those of its citizens who try to tell the truth that is a huge insult to those tourists is very important interest is very important i

fully agree and you lot are very important in fact this is the court well i would have a different opinion here i mean the core of my vision for health in the region is all about what do the citizens expect from their health authorities and we have a very sort of truth truth that i say look the truth expect the truth it's a human right to have an ambition to tell the. truth will come out in the let's be fair trade hasn't been too coming up she says i'm probably you haven't been putting out the truth you've been thanking beijing for transparency when they've been arresting and intimidating people who try to tell the truth and you know that. well this is outside of the degree to european region control i don't want to speculate over here because i'm really working in the 53 countries but let's what is my concern my concern is that the love of trust of the citizens in science and public

health because if we don't get that one corrected we would be very vulnerable for a future pandemic and that's what we're working very hard on with the use with the civil society with the patron of this office that we have to bring in those voices and be very self-critical but right no i would like to repeat because it's so important is to suppress the fires because the fire is still out there tim and we really have to focus on that one and pull together people deserve the truth millions of people how over $100000000.00 people infected 2 and a half 1000000 people died people deserve the truth they haven't been getting the full truth either from china or from you how we can you possibly restore trust in your organization unless you're seeing to address that central issue yes when i am hearing different voices to be honest i'm definitely they'd need to be

improvement of each agency but this lack of trust that you are citing indeed region is not what i'm hearing i have been calling 2 times of hoke my governing body board to look what we are doing to criticise if neat and to go forward and in that sense trust yes i mean trust is very difficult to build it's easy to be lost it's a never ending story but right now doubly sure is the only milty lateral moral and technical force to inspire countries to achieve health for all and we can go to very difficult places that no one else can go including fragile states so that is very important house progress being good to have you on the program thanks very much indeed. my pleasure.

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this is g.w. news a lot from her lens no end to germany's coronavirus shutdown chancellor merkel says the lockdown will be extended for a number 3 weeks but she also announces steps toward a gradual reopening also coming up hundreds of people attend the funeral of a 19 year old protester shot dead in the yanmar in the bloodiest day since the military coup big.