David Nabarro: Is the WHO failing its greatest test?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2020
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With nation states across the world struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, there’s an urgent need for an internationally coordinated response. That’s where the UN agency the World Health Organisation should have a vital role to play; but right now, the WHO is at the centre of a political storm. Donald Trump has withdrawn US funding, accusing the agency of being China-centric. Stephen Sackur speaks to David Nabarro, the WHO special envoy for Covid-19. Is the organisation failing its greatest test?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:06.7 | Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:11.4 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is one of the most experienced combatants in the fight against global infectious disease. |
| 0:23.4 | Dr. David Nabarro is a trained medic who has worked all over the world, |
| 0:28.3 | firstly for the UK government and for the last two decades for the UN agency, |
| 0:33.8 | the World Health Organization. He has led efforts to tackle malaria, a cholera outbreak in Haiti, |
| 0:40.5 | and the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. He was a contender for the leadership of the |
| 0:46.6 | World Health Organization three years ago. He didn't get that job, but he does now have another |
| 0:53.0 | crucial WHO mission leading the agency's response to the |
| 0:57.4 | COVID-19 pandemic. In recent days, that task has been complicated by Donald Trump's decision to suspend |
| 1:05.7 | US funding for the WHO. The president accused the agency of being China-centric and failing in its |
| 1:14.2 | basic duty to properly investigate and respond to the origins of the coronavirus. So has the ability |
| 1:22.6 | of the WHO to inform, coordinate, and lead the international fight against COVID-19 been fundamentally compromised. |
| 1:31.9 | Well, Dr. David Nabarro joins me on the line from Geneva now. |
| 1:36.5 | Welcome to Hard Talk. |
| 1:37.9 | Thank you very much, Stephen. |
| 1:39.1 | Let us start with an overview. |
| 1:41.4 | As a veteran of fighting disease from malaria to cholera to Ebola, |
| 1:47.6 | you've now become the WHO special envoy on COVID-19. |
| 1:52.5 | Are you more worried today than you were a month ago about the way it is spreading around the |
| 1:57.0 | world? |
| 1:57.2 | I was always anxious about this ever since I first heard about it, and I've got |
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