If it’s possible to do the right thing and send the wrong message at the same time, the World Health Organization has managed the feat.
Monday's declaration that the Zika virus constitutes an international public health emergency will help mobilize resources and action. But the agency's language in the days leading up to its meeting in Geneva — that the virus is “spreading explosively” in the Americas, and that “the level of alarm is extremely high” — served more to frighten than illuminate. The WHO, which initially slumbered while the deadly Ebola virus was gaining a foothold in Africa, might be overcompensating for its bumbling performance in 2014 that cost lives.
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