evidence: The World Health Organization (WHO) is a leading organisation involved in the global coordination for mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic within the broader United Nations response to the pandemic. [...] The WHO has been criticized for not stating that the COVID-19 outbreak was a pandemic until significantly after it had already clearly become one.[223] On 18 January 2021, an independent panel led by Helen Clark and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf criticised the WHO for not declaring an international emergency sooner and called for its reform. The panel questioned why the Emergency Committee of WHO only met in the third week of January 2020, and an international emergency was not declared until its second meeting on January 30. It also criticised China for not applying public health measures more forcefully in January 2020. The report says that "the global pandemic alert system is not fit for purpose" and that the "World Health Organization has been underpowered to do the job."[224] [...] - ^ "Global health experts advise WHO to identify animal source of COVID-19 virus". UN News. 1 May 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.