Bureaucratic conflicts stymie WHO in crisis: Weekend Edition

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us //link.mail.bloombergbusiness.com/click/19581924.44698/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS9ib3Bpbmlvbg/582c8673566a94262a8b49bdBac6817ac [Why the WHO Won’t Call the Coronavirus a Pandemic]( — Therese Raphael The World Health Organization still isn’t ready to call the coronavirus a pandemic. This says more about the WHO than it does about Covid-19. “That word is scary, and it's used in movies, [but] that word is not a proxy for a deadly apocalyptic virus,” Jennifer Nuzzo from Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security said in a recent briefing. On the basic WHO definition — the worldwide spread of a new disease — Nuzzo and many others think Covid-19 fits the bill. So why not say so? The question goes to the heart of why the WHO, which has played a major role in the postwar era in disease fighting and prevention, has been, to put it mildly, a frustrating actor in this crisis. The technical answer is that the WHO identifies a pandemic by [various phases]( and doesn’t believe that Covid-19 has hit all the markers yet. But that’s not quite the whole story. Read the [whole thing](. [Madoff Wants Leniency. My Dad Received None.]( — Ian Fisher [Warren Buffett Flashes ‘Urgent’]( — Tara Lachapelle [How to Tell When Markets Finally Reach a Bottom]( — Jim Bianco [The Coronavirus Is Starting to Go Global]( — David Fickling [Why the Coronavirus Isn’t a Buy-the-Dip Opportunity Yet]( — Mohamed A. El-Erian [How Fast Can a Virus Destroy a Supply Chain?]( — Tyler Cowen [Trump Laid the Groundwork for a Coronavirus Mess]( — Jonathan Bernstein [Trump’s Coronavirus News Conference Wasn’t Exactly Reassuring]( — Jonathan Bernstein [Disney's Big Secret Is Finally Out]( — Tara Lachapelle This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the 10 most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion published this week based on web readership, plus some other stuff sometimes thrown in.  Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](.  You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022