I think it would have been terribly irresponsible to forcibly give the WHO top billing back when they were arguing nobody should restrict travel, or to suppress news of the preparations starting to take place in SV when official US authorities were universally saying it’s not a big deal.
Exactly. This. It's a Big Deal because of the media frenzy, not because of the inherent lethality or virality of the disease. We've seen similar pandemics before, without this media frenzy.
The WHO is making science-based responses, which are then perceived as "inadequate" by a public stoked into a frenzy by the media. The media are not motivated by public good, but by profit. The more scared you are, the more times you hit refresh.
We should definitely give WHO top billing on search results, because these are the people we've entrusted to do exactly the right thing in response to this situation. Giving top billing to profit-driven media companies is utterly irresponsible.
Or if we've got this wrong, then sack the WHO and appoint a half-dozen billionaires to their role. Same same.
