Coronavirus outbreak: Pompeo says WHO’s regulatory arm ‘clearly failed’ during the pandemic

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the World Health Organization’s regulatory arm “clearly failed” during this pandemic, referring to the International Health Regulations (IHR) that went into effect in 2007 after the SARS outbreak in 2003, in which the U.S. gave the director-general of WHO the encouragement and the ability to go public when a member state wasn’t following those rules. He said that “this didn’t happen in this case,” and insisted on an ongoing requirement for transparency and openness from WHO.

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