Fundamental lesson of the 1918 pandemic: "Those in authority must retain the public’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one." The WHO early misguided pandemic strategy was to "hammer the source" (even though there was global spread already) and to also avoid speculation, keep calm and avoid panic. They wanted to upgrade precautions only if required, and resort to using the word AIRBORNE and utilising an AIRBORNE mitigation strategy only if needed. Tedros let the message out prematurely when he announced "corona is AIRBORNE" Ryan overrode his warning to the world and set the WHO on their path of droplet dogma disinformation, that they could not back down from. Mike Ryan's mistake, like Trumps, was to place an over emphasis on the fear of panic, and an underemphasis on the importance of the science and the AIRBORNE nature of SARS2 to stopping transmission. The distortion and manipulation of the science, and Ryan trying to hide the AIRBORNE nature of transmission, not only cost the world a chance to stop a pandemic, but continue to cost WHO the trust it needs to fulfil its mission. Acknowledging and fixing their AIRBORNE disinformation scandal could go a long way towards restoring trust, changing terminology is not the answer. @DrTedros @mvankerkhove @JeremyFarrar @doctorsoumya
Fundamental lesson of the 1918 pandemic: "Those in authority must retain the public’s trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one." The WHO early misguided pandemic strategy was to "hammer the source" (even though there was global spread already) and to also avoid speculation, keep calm and avoid panic. They wanted to upgrade precautions only if required, and resort to using the word AIRBORNE and utilising an AIRBORNE mitigation strategy only if needed. Tedros let the message out prematurely when he announced "corona is AIRBORNE" Ryan overrode his warning to the world and set the WHO on their path of droplet dogma disinformation, that they could not back down from. Mike Ryan's mistake, like Trumps, was to place an over emphasis on the fear of panic, and an underemphasis on the importance of the science and the AIRBORNE nature of SARS2 to stopping transmission. The distortion and manipulation of the science, and Ryan trying to hide the AIRBORNE nature of transmission, not only cost the world a chance to stop a pandemic, but continue to cost WHO the trust it needs to fulfil its mission. Acknowledging and fixing their AIRBORNE disinformation scandal could go a long way towards restoring trust, changing terminology is not the answer. @DrTedros @mvankerkhove @JeremyFarrar @doctorsoumya
@JOHNJOHNSTONED And this hubris and refusal to follow the precautionary principle has cost millions of lives and tens or hundreds of millions their health.