The International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee for COVID-19 held its first meeting on January 22 & 23, 2020 [found COVID-19 not an emergency], then 7 days later on January 30, 2020 they met again and upon the committee’s advice, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesuss declared that the novel coronavirus outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the “WHO’s highest level of alarm“. [1, 3]

  • “The Committee also acknowledged that there are still many unknowns, cases have now been reported in five WHO regions in one month, and human-to-human transmission has occurred outside Wuhan and outside China.”
  • “The Committee believes that it is still possible to interrupt virus spread, provided that countries put in place strong measures to detect disease early, isolate and treat cases, trace contacts, and promote social distancing measures commensurate with the risk.”
  • “The Committee agreed that the outbreak now meets the criteria for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.”
  • The Committee emphasized that the declaration of a PHEIC should be seen in the spirit of support and appreciation for China, its people, and the actions China has taken on the frontlines of this outbreak, with transparency, and, it is to be hoped, with success. In line with the need for global solidarity, the Committee felt that a global coordinated effort is needed to enhance preparedness in other regions of the world that may need additional support for that.

“A key factor in reaching their decision – which the WHO had initially been reluctant to make – was that the outbreak was no longer limited to China but had spread rapidly to 18 other countries. Among them, Australia, Vietnam and South Korea which all announced new infections today, while India and the Philippines reported their first cases, and the CDC announced the first person-to-person transmission of the virus in the U.S.” [2]

  • Australia is represented by Professor John Mackenzie of Curtin University on the Emergency Committee.
  • At the time PHEIC was declared 171 people were determined to have died globally from the novel coronavirus. [4]
  • Is this the mark for the start of a technocratic “new economic model”?

Only 5 times before has the WHO declared a PHEIC, since its power to do so was established in 2005 with the IHR:

  • 2009 pandemic influenza
  • 2014 polio resurgence
  • 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa2016 Zika virus outbreak
  • 2019 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo