[eqdw]

Prior to March 3rd, the official position of the WHO was that "The flu is worse"

I don't expect the WHO to be infalliable, and I don't think this reflects malice or incompetence (they updated as information became available) but that's kind of my point. The WHO is not infalliable. The things they say are not gospel truth. Categorically banning discussion of anything that contradicts what they say is a horrendous measure that will suppress critical information, because _even the WHO_ contradicts the WHO. If the WHO is wrong again, but we are not allowed to discuss it, we will never find out. We will instead _enforce_ incorrect information, and people will die.

[takeda]

> Prior to March 3rd, the official position of the WHO was that "The flu is worse"

That wasn't their position, in fact they instructed other nations to prepare. The R0 and mortality rate they provided in the statement[1] is also much higher than of flu, so please don't spread misinformation.

[1] https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/23-01-2020-statement-on...

[knzhou]

> Prior to March 3rd, the official position of the WHO was that "The flu is worse"

This is a lie, and the product of many different organizations flat out making up claims about the WHO to deflect blame away from themselves.

The WHO has been telling nations to prepare since January. I mean, I'm an ordinary citizen and I got clued in to preparing in January from their statements.

[epicureanideal]

You must have been watching different news sources than me. The comment you're replying to is what I saw as well.

[rsynnott]

Perhaps they were. "Watching" may be a warning sign here; TV news is generally... not good.

Here is the WHO warning the world to be ready at the end of January: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/29/whole-world-mu...

Now, there've been lots of problems with the WHO's response, but to claim that they were downplaying it until March is outright false, and if the news you're watching is telling you that you should consider watching (or reading) something else.

[knzhou]

My news source was the actual WHO press conferences. They've been quite clear on this since January.

If you've only heard what some secondary source says the WHO said, then your perception of the WHO is completely determined by what that secondary source wants you to think.