FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2020 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO NEWS | A
The trustworthiness of the WHO
is a particular concern for coun-
tries such as Canada, where pub-
lic-health leaders have sought to
follow WHO recommendations
despite internal warnings about
the reliability of information
coming from China. On Thursday,
Ms. Hua sought to deflect con-
cern, saying, “China has been giv-
ing open, transparent and timely
updates to the world.” Rather
than listen to those accusing Chi-
na of a cover-up, she said, “we
should listen to the WHO.”
But concern about the relation-
ship between the WHO and China
has grown more intense as the vi-
rus pandemic claims tens of thou-
sands of lives, bringing new atten-
tion to early failures in detection
and containment. The WHO can-
not work in China without Beij-
ing’s support, and the organiza-
tion has won praise for its more
recent advocacy of strong mea-
sures to counter COVID-19.
Still, Mr. Galea’s admonition in
late January only added to worry
that the WHO was prioritizing the
interests of China over those of
other countries.
“Nationalgovernments didn’t
get warned as urgently as perhaps
they could have by World Health
officials about the severity and
potential for non-containment of
the virus,” said Andrew Lakoff, an
anthropologist of science and
medicine at University of South-
ern California Dornsife. A key
question now is: “What did the
WHO know and why didn’t they
earlier and more urgently warn
other member states?” he said.
Andrew Cooper, a professor at
the Balsillie School of Interna-
tional Affairs in Waterloo, Ont.,
who studies globalhealth govern-
ance, is blunt: For WHO director
general Tedros Adhanom Ghe-
breyesus, “his priority is to main-
tain good relations with China.”
Beijing has provided more cash
than Washington to the WHO CO-
VID-19 response. But China re-
mains far from the largest con-
tributor to the WHO, giving less
than 10 per cent of what the Unit-
ed States provided last year.
Beijing, however, has made
concerted efforts to increase its
influence at key international or-
ganizations, and the WHO mis-
steps on COVID-19 have brought
that into striking relief.
The “evident bias” in favour of
China at the WHO “matches the
weakness of other UN organiza-
tions in the face of China’s power-
ful campaigning,” François Gode-
ment, senior adviser for Asia at
the Institut Montaigne, wrote in a
recent internet post. Once China
itself began to act decisively
against the virus, the WHO be-
came a valuable clearinghouse for
information, he wrote. But a key
question for the WHO remains
“how to lessen the impact of a re-
lentless authoritarian regime.”
Canada has publicly expressed
confidence in the WHO. Canadian
Health Minister Patty Hajdu ini-
tially said Canada would follow
WHO advice to avoid travel bans,
saying “there isn’t evidence” for
their effectiveness. It was not un-
til March 18 that Canada closed its
borders to most foreigners.
On Thursday, Ms. Hajdu said
“there is no indication” that Chi-
na has falsified data about virus
infection and death rates, and ac-
cused a reporter of “feeding into
conspiracy theories” for ques-
tioning the accuracy of Chinese
data – and the WHO information
that relies upon China.
Chinese authorities have
themselves admitted that, until
recently, their numbers of con-
firmed cases did not include peo-
ple without obvious symptoms.
Even in China’s tightly controlled
media, numerous questions have
been raised about the accuracy of
China’s numbers, particularly af-
ter photos from coronavirus epi-
centre Wuhan showed large num-
bers of boxes containing cremat-
ed remains.
It’s a question that has been
raised at the highest levels in Can-
ada, too. Beginning in late Janu-
ary, the Prime Minister’s Office re-
ceived internal warnings ques-
tioning the reliability of China’s
reporting on the spread of the vi-
rus epidemic, according to a per-son with knowledge of the infor-
mation shared internally. The
Globe is not identifying the per-
son because they are not autho-
rized to make public comments.
Canada had long since lost
some of its own ability to inde-
pendently scrutinize information
coming from China. Under David
Butler-Jones, Canada’s Chief Pub-
lic Health Officer between 2004
and 2014, the Public Health Agen-
cy of Canada stationed a represen-
tative in Beijing – a medical doc-
tor with a specialization in public
health.
“It’s a way of getting an earlier
heads up ... so that if something is
developing, we can get good intel-
ligence on it early and get ahead
of it,” Mr. Butler-Jones said in an
interview. But the doctor who oc-
cupied that post left Beijing in
2015 and has not been replaced,
leaving Canada with no one in
such a position in China during
the spread of COVID-19.
“For me, it’s frustrating,” Mr.
Butler-Jones said. The position
was in China “for good reason.”
Still, other sources of informa-
tion underscored the threat. One
was Taiwan, a region still plagued
by memories of the Chinese cov-
er-up of the SARS epidemic nearly
two decades earlier. Taiwan, shut
out of the WHO at the insistence
of China, was ill-disposed to be-
lieve Beijing’s early assurances on
the new coronavirus.
“We don’t trust anything relat-
ed to new outbreaks from China,”
said Chang-Chuan Chan, dean of
the college of public health at Na-
tional Taiwan University.
Taiwan began inspecting pas-sengers arriving from Wuhan on
Dec. 31, and sent a technical team
to the virus-stricken city on Jan. 13
to 14. The delegation, which also
included experts from Hong Kong
and Macau, was controlled in
what it could see, and denied ac-
cess to the seafood market that is
believed to be at the epicentre of
the COVID-19 outbreak. But the
Taiwanese experts came away
convinced that “there is already
person-to-person transmission,”
Prof. Chan said.
This was out of step with the
WHO, which issued a tweet on the
night the Taiwanese left Wuhan
saying “preliminary investiga-
tions conducted by the Chinese
authorities have found no clear
evidence of human-to-human
transmission” of COVID-19.
The WHO acted “on the basis of
available information,” said spo-
kesperson Tarik Jasarevic, citing a
statement from Chinese author-
ities on Jan. 14 that “there is no
evidence to date of a highly conta-
gious virus.”
The close partnership between
Beijing and the WHO has contin-
ued, with some of the organiza-
tion’s key leaders showing a strik-
ing deference to Chinese priori-
ties, including Bruce Aylward, the
Canadian doctor who led a WHO
mission to China in February.
He attracted global attention
last week when he disconnected a
video interview with a Hong Kong
journalist after being asked about
Taiwan, which Beijing considers
its territory. (“The question of Tai-
wanese membership in WHO is
up to WHO member states, not
WHO staff,” the organization saidin a statement this week. On
Thursday, the HongKong govern-
ment said broadcaster RTHK
“breached the One-China Princi-
ple” with the interview.)
Mr. Aylward’s mission provid-
ed another opportunity for co-op-
eration between the WHO and
China, which provided 12 of the 25
people on the delegation. Chinese
involvement extended to the fi-
nal edits of the subsequent re-
port, including over which specif-
ic language was used.
“There was a bit of wording ma-
nipulation, but not the senti-
ment,” said Dale Fisher, a profes-
sor of medicine at the National
University of Singapore, and one
of the delegates. For example, “we
wanted to call it a ‘dangerous’
pathogen, and they felt the word
‘dangerous’ could be linked to
bio-terrorism.”
The final report calls COVID-
“a new pathogen that is highly
contagious, can spread quickly,
and must be considered capable
of causing enormous health, eco-
nomic and societal impacts.”
The report is effusive toward
China, whose virus response it
calls “exceptional” and whose
people it praises for a deep com-
mitment to “collective action in
the face of this common threat.”
All members of the delegation
“contributed to the writing, in-
tense discussions and finalization
of the report and fully concurred
with the final content and lan-
guage,” said Mr. Jasarevic, the
WHO spokesperson. “No major or
even minor finding of the mission
was not included in the final re-
port.”
Dr. Fisher dismissed criticism
that the WHO was too sunny in its
report from the mission. ”Every-
thing we saw and everything we
learned has completely been rep-
licated elsewhere,” he said, point-
ing to findings about the ratio of
mild, severe and critical cases that
have been similar in other coun-
tries. “If you’re asking me could it
have been any better, my answer
is no,” he said.
And it’s not fair to fault the
WHO for the failures of other gov-
ernments to respond, particularly
after the severity of the virus be-
came clear in Wuhan, said Bilaha-
ri Kausikan, an international af-
fairs specialist who previously
served as ambassador-at-large for
Singapore.
The United States “wasted time
denying that this was a serious is-
sue,” he said. “You can’t blame the
WHO for that. You can’t blame the
WHO for the Europeans having a
terrible, nonchalant attitude to-
ward the whole thing.”WithareportfromAlexandraLiWHO:NumerousquestionshavebeenraisedabouttheaccuracyofChina’snumbers
FROM AA health official monitors passengers from an international flight at the Adisucipto International Airport in
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on Jan. 23.ULETIFANSASTI/GETTYIMAGESDemocrats announced Thursday
that they were postponing their
presidential nominating con-
vention until August, an un-
precedented move that shows
how the coronavirus is re-
shaping the battle for the White
House.
The party had hoped that a
mid-July convention would give
them more time to rally behind
a nominee and unify against
U.S. President Donald Trump.
But concerns that large crowds
will spread the virus prompted
Democrats, including prospec-
tive nominee Joe Biden, to press
for alternatives.
“In our current climate of
uncertainty, we believe the
smartest approach is to take
additional time to monitor how
this situation unfolds so we can
best position our party for a
safe and successful convention,”
said Democratic convention
chief executive Joe Solmonese.
Milwaukee will still play host
to the convention, which is now
scheduled for the week of Aug.- Republicans are sticking with
their plan to meet in Charlotte,
N.C., a week later to renominate
Mr. Trump.
The social distancing re-
quired to combat the coro-
navirus has already prompted
multiple states to delay their
presidential primaries from
April and May into June. But
the postponement of the con-
vention is the most significant
change to the presidential sec-
tion process to date.
Outside circumstances have
affected conventions in the
past, including hurricanes that
forced relatively minor sched-
uling changes to Republican
gatherings in 2008 and 2012.
Still, the major political parties
have always pressed forward
with their conventions, even
during times of crisis as severe
as the Civil War.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DEMOCRATICNATIONAL
COMMITTEEDELAYS
NOMINATINGCONVENTION
OVERCOVID-19CONCERNSGen. Vance, who is Chief of the Defence
Staff, said the military plans include air-
medical evacuations to get people to hos-
pital and provision of supplies, nursing
stations and small field hospitals.
The military can also provide self-isola-
tion quarters for people who test positive
for the virus and live in tight quarters
where they could expose others.
“I deem that as an absolute necessity to
prepare for,” he said.
“If we need to provide for full-service,
multi-spectrum support in a fly-in com-
munity that is at long range from any of
our bases, and if we can do that effective-
ly, then most everything else is going to
be an easy day.”
He said the military has enough med-
ical protective gear and ventilators to en-
sure it can save lives if called to a remote
community.
The general said he also issued an or-
der to hire reservists full-time to serve in
any way needed.
“I am in the process right now of of-
fering contracts through our service
chiefs to reservists across the country for
full-time contracts to bring them on,” he
said. “At the right moment, they will be
organized by task forces that are tailored
to do the job, whatever that may be in
whatever part of the country that may
be.”
The reservists would be on call and in
isolation “so that they are immediately
available and it shortens our response
time.”
The reservists should be ready to de-
ploy within a week or so to be “a helpful
hand in a community should they run out
of capacity in terms of humanitarian acts
that are perhaps being done by volun-
teers now if volunteers get exhausted or
sick.”
Steps are being taken to ensure troops
don’t accidentally bring the virus to re-
mote communities, Gen. Vance said. Only
15 per cent of staff are working at their
usual office or post, while everyone else is
working from home, he said.
Fewer than 20 personnel have tested
positive for the virus, Gen. Vance said,
noting there is no sign of community
spread among the Canadian Armed
Forces at this point. However, he said he is
preparing for up to 25 per cent of mem-
bers to potentially be unavailable in a
worst-case scenario.
“I think the number of cases will rise.
It’s just the nature of the spread. But with
the kind of discipline and dedication to
keeping ourselves ready, I think it’ll stay
reasonably low. We don’t want to just flat-
ten the curve, we want to squash it out
altogether.”
Gen. Vance said he is paying close at-
tention to the virus’s spread in the United
States, as it will be a concern to Canada if
it gets out of control south of the border.
He said he is also monitoring the sit-
uation in Europe, the Middle East and
Africa to ensure Canadian troops sta-
tioned abroad are not exposed to CO-
VID-19.
The pandemic has further complicated
the future of Canadian operations in the
Middle East. Most Canadian troops were
temporarily pulled out of Iraq before the
COVID-19 outbreak. The withdrawal came
earlier this year after a U.S. drone strike in
Iraq killed a senior Iranian military com-
mander, creating instability in the coun-
try.Aside from a small team of Special
Forces in Northern Iraq and a skeleton
staff in Baghdad, most Canadian troops
are now stationed in Kuwait or back in
Canada. Gen. Vance said troops will return
to Iraq, but factors including the CO-
VID-19 pandemic and the political situa-
tion in the country would have to stabi-
lize first.
The Navy is also taking steps to ensure
Canadian ships avoid a possible coronavi-
rus infection, as a U.S. warship deals with
a COVID-19 outbreak. Gen. Vance said the
Navy acted early, isolating sailors for 14
days and disinfecting any supplies that
come on board ships.
As warmer weather and the Easter
weekend approach, Gen. Vance echoed
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plea to
Canadians to practise physical distancing.
“I would rather that everybody follows
that and prevents the use of the military
than not follow it and cause the military
to be used. Because when the military
comes in, it’s a last-ditch effort and it’s
really bad.”Military:Vancehasalsoissuedordertohirereservistsfull-time
FROM ATheRoyalCanadianNavyispullingships
backfrommissionsabroadandimposing
newrulesonphysicaldistancingwhileat
seaasthemilitarypreparestorespondto
theCOVID-19pandemic.
ThedangerCOVID-19posestothe
tightlypackedcrewsofwarshipswas
illustratedthisweekbyanoutbreak
aboardaU.S.aircraftcarrier,whichhasso
farseenatleast93ofits4,800sailorstest
positivefortheviruswhilehundredsmore
awaittheirresults.
TheoutbreakpromptedtheUSSTheo-
doreRoosevelt’scommander,Captain
BrettCrozier,towritetohissuperiors
pleadingforassistancetopreventpossible
deaths.TheRooseveltisnowbeingevac-
uatedatitsbaseinGuam,withnoword
onwhenitwillreturntoservice.
Topreventasimilarcrisis,RoyalCana-
dianNavyVice-AdmiralArtMcDonaldtold
hissailorsthisweekthatanumberof
“mitigationstrategies”arebeingadopted
tolimitpotentialexposuretoCOVID-19.
Thoseincluderestrictingshoreleaveinforeignports,makingspecialarrange-
mentsforeatingonboardshipsand
practisingphysicaldistancing“toextent
possible”onshoreandatseabylimiting
traditionalpracticessuchasmusters.
FourCanadianwarshipsarealsobeing
recalled,twoeachfromtheCaribbeanand
WestAfricawhileVice-Adm.McDonald
saidallbutthemostcriticalsailingplans
arebeingcancelledforthenexttwo
months.
“WhilethetrajectoryofCOVID-19can-
notbepredictedwithcertainty,weare
doingeverythingpossibletoensurethe
healthandsafetyofoursailorsat-sea,
cognizantthatthisisessentialtoour
abilitytoremainoperationallydeployed,”
hewroteinalettertosailors.
EvenasCanadiannavycommanders
worktopreventoutbreaksonboardtheir
ships,militaryplannersarealsolookingat
waystokeepservicemembersfrom
transmittingCOVID-19tocommunities
wheretheyareaskedtorespond.
THECANADIANPRESSCANADIAN NAVY RECALLS SHIPS, ORDERS PHYSICAL DISTANCING
ON BOARD IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC