WHO criticizes Amnesty report into North Korea health

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

WHO criticizes Amnesty report into North Korea health
By Associated Press
Friday, July 16, 2010 - Added 1 hour ago

GENEVA — The World Health Organization found itself Friday in the strange position of defending North Korea’s health care system from an Amnesty International report, three months after WHO’s director described medicine in the totalitarian state as the envy of the developing world.

WHO spokesman Paul Garwood insisted he wasn’t criticizing Amnesty’s work, but the public relations flap illustrated an essential quandary for aid groups in unfree states: how to help innocent people without playing into the hands of their leaders.

Amnesty’s report on Thursday described North Korea’s health care system in shambles, with doctors sometimes performing amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight in hospitals lacking essential medicine, heat and power. It also raised questions about whether coverage is universal as it — and WHO — claimed, noting most interviewees said they or a family member had given doctors cigarettes, alcohol or money to receive medical care. And those without any of these reported that they could get no health assistance at all.

Garwood said Thursday’s report by Amnesty was mainly anecdotal, with stories dating back to 2001, and not up to the U.N. agency’s scientific approach to evaluating health care. "All the facts are from people who aren’t in the country," Garwood told reporters in Geneva. "There’s no science in the research."






Read more: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/general/view/20100716who_criticizes_amnesty_report_into_north_korea_health/

[geek tragedy]

1. So, they can't afford food but they can afford world class healthcare.

Hmmm, I suspect the UN folks were shown some Potemkin hospitals.

[Posteritatis]

2. There's no mention of "world class healthcare" anywhere in that article (nt)

[daleo]

3. Defector reports aren't really that reliable

As we discovered before the Iraq invasion. Still, a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest (Paul Simon).

[ronnie624]

4. "Garwood said Thursday’s report by Amnesty

was mainly anecdotal, with stories dating back to 2001, and not up to the U.N. agency’s scientific approach to evaluating health care."

Yep. This has been obvious to me for a long time. Brandishing AI as an unimpeachable source, convinces me of little.