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#EAPM - EU and WHO in firing line. But is it fair?

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Another day, a further EAPM despatch for your delight and delectation…and more developments in the current COVID-19 crisis as the holiday looms, writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine, Executive Director, Denis Horgan.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is unlikely to be having the best run-up to Easter of his life, having spent a couple of nights (so far) in the ICU at St Thomas' Hospital in London "for close monitoring".

But at least Britain’s Health minister Edward Argar has said Johnson is "comfortable, he's stable, he's in good spirits”.

With or without Boris, it is unlikely that the UK Government’s three-week review into whether the coronavirus lockdown could be eased will go ahead as planned on Monday, with Asgar saying that the scientific evidence "isn't yet there to allow us to make us a decision".

The minister added: ”We have to be over that peak before we can think about making changes…It’s too early to say when we will reach that peak."

With the aforementioned Easter weekend coming up, it will be interesting to see how many Brits defy strong recommendations to stay at home. It’s fair to say that at the first excuse and during any sunny weather they’ve been a bit naughty.

EU faces criticism…again

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Given the fact that the EU does not have competence in health, as that is the much-guarded gift of Member States, it must be somewhat demoralizing at times for the European Commission to face criticism about what it is doing right now to fight the novel coronavirus and the fall-out on all fronts, fiscal and more.

A good case in point is the resignation of the president of the EUs top science funding agency this week, firing on all cylinders as he left.

Mauro Ferrari, an Italian-American scientist, has only led the European Research Council since January, but in that time has clearly been unimpressed with the EU’s action over the coronavirus crisis.

He says he resigned in the wake of a dispute over the EUs approach and has lost faith in the system”.

Ferrari spoke dramatically of an “internal political thunderstorm” involving the highest levels of the European Commission, adding that: “I have been extremely disappointed by the European response to Covid-19.”

OK, because more broadly, it has in fact been admitted that not everything was right across Europe, but crucially not just at EU level, as the crisis broke.

There were certainly important gaps in the readiness of member states, while those in the Berlaymont didn’t properly realise that individual countries were so badly prepped.

Tellingly, the day after the WHO declared a public health emergency, only four countries across the Union reported they might be short of personal protective equipment in an emergency. That’s come back to haunt everyone.

So is the criticism all fair? 

While the EU is far from perfect, as we at EAPM have noted again and again in our own sphere, it does its best to perform what is a unique balancing act and influences Europe-wide healthcare where it can.

“Hands off our taxation, hands off our pension rates and hands off our healthcare systems!” cry the Member States (funny that these areas involve loads and loads and loads of cash and resources).

Like Frank Sinatra, they do it their way - which is not exactly conducive to the EU trying to coordinate matters in a situation as evidently serious as this one, despite the fact that it is a communal problem and not one that any individual member country is facing toute seule. (Although some are more in the merde than others, at the moment.)

Every member state differs in its history, culture and resources, but one of the key reasons for having the Union in the first place is that we all share a common desire to give citizens a better quality of life.  

The EU provides a framework for that system to work. But it is not allowed to dictate, especially in areas such as healthcare. Therefore the only way forward is by consensus and a willingness on the part of Member States to cooperate for the good of all. That is often woefully lacking in the arena of health.

A quick look at data in the coronavirus context

Data is the big thing these days, and Big Data is the even bigger thing. 

It has become abundantly clear via the current crisis (despite the fact the EAPM and its partners and stakeholders already knew it) that we need better systems of data collection, reporting, centralization and visualization.

Some good systems of surveillance exist in this context but, unfortunately, in the case of crisis situations, they have not been stress tested and arguably do not work effectively. (Remember the banking system of the 2008 crisis? The similarities are scary and, yet, we still have the banking system.)

Meanwhile, despite being theoretically data-rich, we do not accurately know how many deaths there actually have been from Covid-19 across the EU, given that each Member State employs its own methodology. This hardly helps to formulate a truly effective response.

On top of this, health security has been shown to be inadequate, in the sense that - EU-wide - health resources have not been rationally moved from point A to point B when needed.

Blaming and shaming. What’s the point?

So. Where to point the finger? Is there actually any sense in playing the ‘blame game’ when it comes down to it?

Not really.

What’s more important is to identify the issues and fill in the gaps going forward. One of those is EU competence. Don’t blame the EU if you, as an individual member state, tie its hands and refuse to let it do what it actually could do, given the permissions, support and the better degree of legal competence it could actually have in theory.

And spare a thought for the WHO… That, too, is coming under the cosh, not least from everybody’s favourite self-proclaimed ‘stable genius’, US President Donald Trump.

This week, The Man in the White House first announced plans to put a hold on US funding for the WHO, calling it “very China centric” while blasting its guidance early in the crisis.

Then, mere minutes later, he changed his mind and told reporters in Washington DC that he was looking into it”. Heavens above - he then even went so far as to admit that slap-bang in the middle of a devastating global pandemic is “maybe not” the best time to freeze funding. Do you think?

Either way, it is true that the WHO has changed its stance on face masks for the public since the earliest days. Well, sort of. Throughout, however, it has made the consistent point that the very top-quality medical masks should be reserved for healthcare workers”.

OK, so it’s fair to say that the Geneva-based organisation has been a bit waffly on the value (or not) of wearing face masks but, like everyone else, it’s reacting as well and and as quickly as it can and trying to use data that is constantly emerging.

It is a little bit too convenient for countries that haven’t invested enough in their own public healthcare systems and the state/citizen social contract to blame a body with regional offices scattered around the globe.

It’s even more convenient to expect it to act as a gamekeeper in a pandemic situation by chucking a few euros, pounds and dollars at it and expecting miracles. especially back-dated ones.

Like the the powers-that-be in the Berlaymont, the WHO only has certain competences, and certainly not enough funding - nor any God-like powers - that would allow it to contain a potential pandemic on its own. 

The XHO aside, there is, in the end, a serious discussion necessary about competence and funding in regional (ie EU-wide) healthcare. And whether in this context we need more Europe - much more - rather than less.

Meetings…and delays

The European Parliaments Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee (ENVI) is set to meet on 20 or 21April, with Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides likely to address it.

However, the Commission’s expected “roadmap to exit” presentation has been put back until after Easter, when it will presumably unveil its thoughts on how Europe can find a common way out of the lockdown. 

Don’t worry. There’s no rush. Most of us aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon…

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EU Reporter publishes articles from a variety of outside sources which express a wide range of viewpoints. The positions taken in these articles are not necessarily those of EU Reporter.

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