Why the WHO Wants Everyone to Wake Up About Monkeypox
The emergency declaration might be controversial, but the virus is spreading and countries need a more robust response.
Getting serious.
Photographer: NOAH SEELAM/AFPThe World Health Organization had a hard time deciding whether to label monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) or not. That’s a rare designation, given to Covid-19 and a handful of other diseases such as swine flu in 2009, polio in 2014 and Ebola (twice). It carries binding legal commitments for member nations to act.
A majority of the WHO’s Emergency Committee, however, was unconvinced that monkeypox qualified. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who came under criticism for being slow to declare Covid-19 a pandemic and too deferential to China, cast the deciding vote. With a rising number of monkeypox cases around the world — some 16,000 have now been reported in 75 countries — the WHO chief clearly wanted to err on the side of caution.