{"id":272013,"date":"2020-10-16T00:11:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T04:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=272013"},"modified":"2020-10-16T00:12:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T04:12:53","slug":"no-the-who-didnt-change-its-lockdown-stance-or-admit-trump-was-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/16\/no-the-who-didnt-change-its-lockdown-stance-or-admit-trump-was-right\/","title":{"rendered":"No, the WHO Didn\u2019t Change Its Lockdown Stance or \u2018Admit\u2019 Trump Was Right"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President of the United States Donald Trump speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo<\/a>: Gage Skidmore\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Monday, President Donald Trump claimed that the World Health Organization (WHO) \u201cadmitted\u201d he was correct that using lockdowns to control the spread of COVID-19 was more damaging than the illness.<\/p>\n

In a post on Twitter<\/a>, Trump wrote: \u201cThe World Health Organization just admitted that I was right. Lockdowns are killing countries all over the world. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. Open up your states, Democrat governors. Open up New York. A long battle, but they finally did the right thing!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The World Health Organization just admitted that I was right. Lockdowns are killing countries all over the world. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. Open up your states, Democrat governors. Open up New York. A long battle, but they finally did the right thing!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He reiterated his statement later that night during a campaign rally, saying<\/a>, \u201cBut the World Health Organization, did you see what happened? They just came out a little while ago, and they admitted that Donald Trump was right. The lockdowns are doing tremendous damage to these Democrat-run states, where they\u2019re locked out, sealed up. Suicide rates, drug rates, alcoholism, deaths by so many different forms. You can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Together, the tweet and these comments got considerable attention on social media.<\/p>\n

But did the WHO change its stance on lockdowns or concede anything to Trump, as he said it did? Briefly, no.<\/p>\n

Since May, Trump has been vocal about asking states to reopen businesses, schools, religious services and other social activities. He also took credit for locking down the U.S. in the early stages of the pandemic, however. And his administration largely delegated lockdown decisions to governors and local governments.<\/p>\n

Yet those lockdowns \u2014 marked by stay-at-home orders and other restrictions \u2014 have been less stringent than those implemented in other countries, said Brooke Nichols<\/a>, an assistant professor of global health at Boston University.<\/p>\n

The \u201cdefinition has differed country by country and state by state. I would argue that the U.S. has never had an actual enforced lockdown like there have been in some Asian countries and in Italy last spring,\u201d Nichols wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

We reached out to the Trump campaign and the White House to ask for more information about Trump\u2019s assertion but didn\u2019t receive a response.<\/p>\n

A Clip Doesn\u2019t Tell the Full Story<\/b><\/p>\n

Although the Trump team didn\u2019t get back to us, we noticed that the Trump War Room Twitter account<\/a> responded to Trump\u2019s tweet with a link to a video, appearing to back up the president\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n

The video is a clip from an Oct. 8 interview<\/a> with Dr. David Nabarro, a special envoy on COVID-19 for the WHO, by Scottish journalist Andrew Neil<\/a>. The segment was televised by the British news outlet Spectator TV.<\/p>\n

In response to a question about the economic consequences of lockdowns, Nabarro said: \u201cWe in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus. The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources; protect your health workers who are exhausted. But by and large, we\u2019d rather not do it.\u201d Nabarro then went on to describe potential economic consequences, including effects on the tourism industry and farmers or the worsening of world poverty.<\/p>\n

We checked with Nabarro to find out if the clip accurately reflected the points he raised during a nearly 20-minute interview. He responded, by email: \u201cMy comments were taken totally out of context. The WHO position is consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

That context Nabarro mentioned covered a range of topics, such as the estimate that about 90% of the world\u2019s population is still vulnerable to COVID-19, that lockdowns are only an effective pandemic response in extreme circumstances and what Nabarro means when he talks about finding the \u201cmiddle path.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re saying we really do have to learn how to coexist with this virus in a way that doesn\u2019t require constant closing down of economies, but at the same time in a way that is not associated with high levels of suffering and death,\u201d Nabarro said in the interview.<\/p>\n

To achieve that via the middle-path approach, robust defenses against the virus must be put in place, said Nabarro, including having well-organized public health services, such as testing, contact tracing and isolation. It also involves communities adhering to public health guidelines such as wearing masks, physical distancing and practicing good hygiene.<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s really not accurate for the president to imply that the WHO has or has not supported lockdowns, said Lawrence Gostin<\/a>, a global health law professor at Georgetown University. It\u2019s not as simple as an either-or choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is saying that lockdowns should never be used, just that they shouldn\u2019t be used as a primary or only method,\u201d Gostin wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

And Josh Michaud<\/a>, associate director of global health policy at KFF, said both the WHO and public health experts have acknowledged there are economic consequences to lockdowns. (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.)<\/p>\n

\u201cStrict lockdowns are best used sparingly and in a time-limited fashion because they can cause negative health and economic consequences,\u201d said Michaud. \u201cThat is why Nabarro said lockdowns are not recommended as the \u2018primary\u2019 control measure. Critics like to frame lockdowns as being recommended as the only measure, when in reality that is not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Has the WHO Flipped on Its Stance on Lockdowns?<\/b><\/p>\n

And what about Trump\u2019s assertion that the WHO had changed its position and admitted he was right?<\/p>\n

A member of the WHO media office told us in a statement, \u201cOur position on lockdowns and other severe movement restrictions has been consistent since the beginning. We recognize that they are costly to societies, economies and individuals, but may need to be used if COVID-19 transmission is out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWHO has never advocated for national lockdowns as a primary means for controlling the virus. Dr. Nabarro was repeating our advice to governments to \u2018do it all,\u2019\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

To test this premise, we looked at statements by WHO leaders over the course of the pandemic. In the multiple media briefings we reviewed from February onward, the WHO appeared consistent in its messaging<\/a> about what lockdowns should be deployed for: to give governments time to respond to a high number of COVID-19 cases and get a reprieve for health care workers. Although WHO leaders in February supported the shutting down of the city of Wuhan, China, the presumed source of the COVID-19 outbreak, they have also acknowledged<\/a> that lockdowns can have serious economic effects<\/a>, and that robust testing, contact tracing and physical distancing are usually preferable to completely locking down.<\/p>\n

There is also no evidence the WHO \u201cadmitted\u201d Trump was right about lockdowns.<\/p>\n

Our Ruling<\/b><\/p>\n

Trump tweeted on Monday and then said later that night at a campaign rally that the WHO admitted he was right about lockdowns.<\/p>\n

We found no evidence the WHO made this admission. And, based on a review of WHO communications, we found its messaging on the topic has been consistent since the pandemic\u2019s early days.<\/p>\n

Trump also appears to have relied on a brief video clip of a wide-ranging interview with WHO special envoy Dr. David Nabarro that didn\u2019t give an accurate portrayal of how Nabarro characterized the use of this intervention.<\/p>\n

We rate this statement False.<\/p>\n

KHN<\/a>\u00a0(Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation), which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.<\/i><\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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