Abiding by the World Health Organization Guidelines: A Hobson’s Choice

Abstract

Introduction: Of late, a number of contemporary articles in prestigious scientific platforms have shown that COVID-19 has questioned the global health expertise of major developed countries like the USA, the UK, and other European nations and has also raised concerns over the international health agency, the World Health Organization (WHO). With the advent of this worldwide pandemic, the WHO has admitted that they faltered in managing the crisis efficiently. The objective of this article is to highlight the fact that as there was no specific vaccine or treatment at hand when the pandemic broke out, and that the portfolio available with these nations under the directions of the WHO to counter COVID-19 was indeed limited. There was no other alternative in this time of an unprecedented emergency on a global scale. As such, whatever immediate steps were disseminated by the WHO to contain the virus's spread were indeed justified. Methods: Specifically employing secondary research and using the available literature on the internet and library sources, a survey of published articles in leading journals of the world was carried out to investigate and analyze the position of the WHO and its future strategies in dealing with the world's most unprecedented pandemic. Results and Conclusion: The present research and findings suggest that a large-scale fund allocation from every member country’s defence budget in a fixed percentage contribution might help in an attempt to create an initiative, Health for All. Such an initiative will help in substantially replenishing the already depleting funding of the World Health Organization. This will enable effective control of the global pandemic crisis with significant international cooperation, allowing collaboration and sharing of the financial burden. The specially created fund can be used under international monitoring for such unprecedented calamities in the near future if any such pandemic arises again. More focus can thus be given to special training of manpower, advancements in the protective equipment, development of vaccines, critical care hospitals, and centers on a global basis. Healthcare must become the new frontier of international cooperation and governance.