ROME: A U.N. epidemiologist who publicly denounced the World Health Organizations withdrawal of a report on Italys coronavirus response has resigned, citing the unsustainable situation he faced at the agency as a whistleblower.
Francesco Zambon said Thursday his resignation was effective March 31. He declined further comment other than to say it was humanly and professionally impossible for him to continue on his job.
Zambon had filed an internal ethics complaint with the WHO in May after he said he was pressured by a senior WHO official to falsify data to obscure that Italy hadnt updated its influenza pandemic preparedness plan since 2006.
Zambon refused, and the report eventually was published noting the outdated plan and saying Italys initial response to the outbreak was improvised, chaotic and creative.
The WHO pulled the report from its website May 14, a day after it went up, and never republished it. The scandal over its withdrawal made headlines amid suggestions that the WHO…