The World Health Organisation (WHO), which faced fierce US criticism over its handling of the coronavirus crisis, launched an independent panel to review its response to the pandemic, AFP reported.

The Independent panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response will be headed by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

“Through you, the world will understand the truth of what happened and also the solutions to build our future better as one humanity,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the UN agency's headquarters in Geneva.