The World Health Organization ’s Maria Van Kerkhove On Balancing Science, Public Relations and Politics

Maria Van Kerkhove had never held a World Health Organization (WHO) press briefing before January. Now, people in countries across the globe tune in almost daily to watch the American epidemiologist—along with WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Dr. Mike Ryan—break down the latest updates in the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic. The job is not easy, particularly given recent criticism of the WHO’s handling of COVID-19 in its earliest days in China. The Trump Administration pulled U.S. funding to the WHO earlier this month, alleging that it was too accepting of Chinese data and that the group concealed key information about the early days of the virus’ spread. The WHO has also sparred openly with government officials in Taiwan, who said the group ignored their early questions about human-to-human transmission. Van Kerkhove spoke recently with TIME about the challenges of balancing science, public relations and politics, and the inherent uncertainty within any outbreak. The conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. How have you adapted to your role as a WHO spokesperson? I take briefings very seriously, as we all do, and feel a tremendous responsibility to articulate these very complicated matters in a way that’s open, honest, truthful, and also captures the uncertainty. I do have some practice. I have a nine-year-old and one-year-old. Just before Christmas, ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news