There has long been much suspicion about the value of many international organizations, particularly those with three letter acronyms. The IMF and the World Bank have arguably done much more harm than good, saddling the Third World with unmanageable debts, while their tyrants drive golden Rolls Royce’s. So it comes as no surprise, though it still horrified me, to read the WHO’s Director-General, Margaret Chan, musings on H1N1 and the future health of the planet.
She is quoted in the National Post, speaking to the Regional Committee for Europe (I assume some sub-branch of WHO): “Gaps in health outcomes will be reduced and health systems will strive for fairness only when equity is an explicit policy objective, also in sectors well beyond health…. [We need] changes in the functioning of the global economy.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I assumed the WHO was hoping not so much to “reduce gaps in health outcomes” but to improve health outcomes in general. At least, when I go to the doctor, I am concerned about improving my health outcome, not in seeing it approaching that of my neighbour. Perhaps that explains her initial enthusiasm for H1N1: “It is all of humanity that is under threat.” At least that virus attempted to be fair, targeting all, not just the poor.
But what is really horrifying is that, as Kevin Libin discuses in the National Post, she is not interested in improving the world. So a health outcome that was “fair” is more important than a cure. I don’t even really understand how a health system would “strive for fairness”. Surely WHO is meant to help prevent the spread of disease through monitoring the state of diseases across the planet. A quick Googling reveals what appears to be their mission statement:
It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.
Nothing about “striving for fairness” that I can see. Yet another front for socialist, world government.