Fred Fleitz: WHO's 'Mishandling' of Virus Outbreak 'Very Serious'

Calling it "quite literally a matter of life and death," a review of the responses to the global coronavirus pandemic must be made a priority, according to the Center for Security Policy President Fred Fleitz.

"It's not too early to plan how to review the American and international responses to the pandemic once it has ended," Fleitz wrote for Fox News. "A review of what went wrong and what went right in dealing with the coronavirus as it first emerged in China and then spread around the world is necessary both to assess accountability and to prevent future worldwide disease outbreaks.

"Improving the global response to the next outbreak is quite literally a matter of life and death."

The U.S. is not without "some initial mistakes," just turn on the TV, Fleitz wrote.

"However, polls show President Trump and his administration getting greater approval than disapproval from the American people for the handling of the coronavirus crisis," he added.

President Donald Trump's "much criticized" early travel bans and the creation of the coronavirus task force, which now delivers daily press briefings, "have proven to be effective actions," Fleitz wrote.

But blaming Trump blurs the scrutiny China must face, he added.

"Importantly, much of the media and Democratic politicians eager to blame President Trump for all the world's problems don't want to talk about the Chinese government's cover-up of the emergence of the coronavirus in that country late last year and early this year," he continued.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) also shares responsibility with China for hiding details of the coronavirus in its early stages. This cost the world vital time that could have prevented this virus from becoming a deadly pandemic."

This cannot be political, because everything and everyone has been impacted, Fleitz wrote.

"There must be post-pandemic investigations of how the U.S. government and governments around the world have dealt with the coronavirus crisis," according to Fleitz. "These investigations need to be done right to fairly determine accountability and not create new problems. To the greatest extent possible, politics should play no role in these probes."

A "9/11-like" coronavirus commission "would be a mistake for many reasons," though, per Fleitz.

"The most important is that Congress should not be contracting out its constitutional oversight responsibility to unelected, blue-ribbon panels," he wrote. "Such panels in this political environment will never be independent and would be just as political as a congressional investigation.

"A coronavirus commission could also try to use the coronavirus crisis to force bad ideas on the country that go beyond its mandate. The 9/11 Commission did this when it proposed the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The office was launched but morphed into a huge and wasteful intelligence bureaucracy."

Fleitz also has pinpointed scrutiny on the WHO.

"WHO's mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak was also very serious," he wrote. "In mid-January, the WHO repeated false claims by the Chinese government that there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

"In late January, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised China for its 'transparency' in dealing with the virus."

Questions now abound China just might not be giving the full truth. For now, we focus on slowing the spread and saving lives.

"Responsible investigations of the coronavirus pandemic by the U.S. Congress and an international commission after the crisis has passed will help the world heal and prevent future pandemic crises," he concluded.

"Let's hope the end of this crisis is in sight so we can start these investigations and a full, post-virus recovery."