WHO Class Action Says COVID-19 Was Mishandled

A recent class action lawsuit claims that the World Health Organization (WHO) mishandled the coronavirus outbreak, leading to serious consequences.

The World Health Organization class action lawsuit was filed by several plaintiffs including Dr. Richard O. Kling – a New York doctor – and two other New York residents. They claim they were injured by WHO’s “negligent” behaviors surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization was founded as a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1948. Based on the agency’s constitution, WHO has the responsibility to “act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health work.”

A variety of responsibilities fall under this mandate. In the past, the World Health Organization has advocated for universal healthcare, monitored global health risks, coordinated emergency responses to health crises, and otherwise promoted health and well being around the United Nations.

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However, the agency allegedly failed in its duties when it negligently managed the coronavirus outbreak, according to the recent WHO class action lawsuit.

The coronavirus pandemic quickly escalated after an unidentified form of pneumonia was recorded in Wuhan, China during November 2019. By early January, the World Health Organization released news of the outbreak on their website while cases continued to mount in China and the first deaths started to be reported. By mid-January, the virus had spread to other countries including the United States.

Despite the increasing number of cases, the WHO reportedly waited until March 11 to declare COVID-19 to be a global pandemic. Unlike an epidemic, which includes a rapid spread of a disease across a population (such as a country or continent), a pandemic is a global outbreak of a disease.

Although the plaintiffs acknowledge that the World Health Organization was correct in deeming the coronavirus to be a pandemic, the WHO class action lawsuit argues that the agency was negligent in their slow response.

“Between November 2019 – when the first case of this new virus was first detected until March 11, 2020, when the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, the Chinese government and the WHO intentionally mislead the international community, including the named Plaintiffs, about the coronavirus and its devastating medical and economic effects,” the World Health Organization class action lawsuit claims.

In addition to negligence, the plaintiffs claim that WHO and Chinese officials conspired to conceal the severity of the outbreak. This was allegedly accomplished when the government and agency “intimidated doctors, scientists, journalists, and lawyers and ordered the destruction of medical testing and data.”

“When the WHO should have been focusing on global counter-pandemic efforts, it was instead politicizing the crisis and using the WHO platform to defend the Chinese government’s gross violation of human rights,” the WHO class action lawsuit claims.

“Although China has been dishonest about the coronavirus’s origin and prevalence, misinforming and misleading the World and member nations, the WHO publicly praised China’s ‘transparency’ in battling the spread of the disease.”

Combined with underreporting the severity and death rate of COVID-19, these actions allegedly resulted in the global community being unprepared for the consequences of the pandemic.

The plaintiffs argue that, had the agency taken the proper actions in the early days of the outbreak, they would have been able to take advantage of a “critical window” during which the COVID-19 pandemic could be halted.

According to the WHO class action lawsuit, this is not the first time the agency has failed to adequately respond to a global health crisis.

When the Ebola epidemic hit West Africa, WHO allegedly “fell short of its leadership responsibilities.”

The agency reportedly failed to take into account the many factors surrounding Ebola transmission and failed again when they didn’t adequately respond to the outbreak’s second wave in May 2014.

The World Health Organization has allegedly acknowledged these failures, stating: “The initial response was slow and insufficient, we were not aggressive in alerting the world, our surge capacity was limited, we did not work effectively in coordination with other partners, there were shortcomings in risk communication, and there was confusion of role and responsibilities at the three levels [Headquarters, Regional Office and Country Offices] of the organization.”

However, despite acknowledging the issues with their Ebola response, the agency reportedly committed the same negligence when handling the early news of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plaintiffs are represented by Steven Bennett Blau and Shelly A. Leonard of Blau Leonard Law Group LLC.

The World Health Organization Coronavirus Class Action Lawsuit is Kling, et al. v. The World Health Organization, Case No. 7:20-cv-03124, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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