Topline
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit from residents in Westchester County, an early Covid-19 hotspot, against the World Health Organization alleging it was negligent in its response to Covid-19, a victory for the WHO as it comes under increasing political scrutiny.
Key Facts
The proposed class action lawsuit, filed in April last year by seven Westchester County, New York, residents, asked for “substantial damages” for Westchester residents and accused the WHO of “failing to properly monitor the response to the Coronavirus pandemic in China.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include a doctor from New Rochelle and six nearby residents, according to Reuters, who contracted the virus around the time when the area was an early epicenter for the virus, which spread rapidly after a lawyer attended a New Rochelle synagogue before the WHO officially declared the coronavirus a pandemic in early March 2020.
U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, ruling that the WHO is immune to such lawsuits under the 1945 International Organization Immunities Act.
Seibel ruled the lawsuit only made “general and vague” assertions that the WHO violated its own international health regulations, and instead made decisions within its discretion, which keeps it immune from civil lawsuits.
Blau Leonard Law Group, the law firm representing the Westchester residents, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
Key Background
The WHO’s response to the pandemic has been embroiled in political controversy. The Trump administration withdrew from the WHO last year over complaints the organization was too deferential to China. Though the U.S. has since rejoined under President Joe Biden, the U.S. and several other countries said they had “deep concerns” over a recent WHO investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, citing the fact that China did not release raw case data to WHO investigators. Beijing has pushed back on the notion that it mishandled the pandemic and wasn’t transparent to investigators, while WHO scientist Ben Embarek said the team was “never pressured to remove critical elements in our report,” according to Bloomberg.
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April 06, 2021 at 06:48AM
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Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against WHO Over Its Covid-19 Response - Forbes
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