Margaret Chan

Throughout 2014 and 2015, the epidemic raged on.

I interviewed Dr. Margaret Chan, then director-general of the World Health Organization at the height of the outbreak in December 2014, where I asked her about criticism of the WHO's response to the crisis.

So that you have been to the ground.

You see the complexity.

So if I think back, um, at, uh, COVID, we've had COVID, but even way before in SARS-1 in 2003, I was sent out to, um, Hong Kong from, by the Department of He- uh, Health here to look at the exit screening in Ho- uh, affected countries.

And there I was watching, uh, Margaret Chan, uh, who was Director of Health then, um, every morning, uh, every afternoon come up on TV and talk about buildings that they had quarantined and, um, with, and me thinking, "Oh, gosh, what if that, can that have ever happened in the UK?" I never thought that it would happen when we had COVID, but can that really happen? But her every day sort of coming in and, coming on and saying which buildings and which, which estates had been quarantined, and everyone being quite hostile to it.

And then one day she came on, and the, um, the hospital, uh, the director of the hospital authorities was actually in hospital and in ITU, and she broke down.

And somehow that human emotional reaction made her seem so much more relatable, so much more understanding of the situation people were in.