Mr. Chair, thank you. I'm very much honoured to be with you.
My charge today is to discuss the international dimensions and governance dimensions, particularly the role of the World Health Organization and the performance of the international health regulations.
I've worked with the World Health Organization now for over 30 years. I'm also on the director general's roster of experts for the international health regulations committees.
I've been closely involved in many epidemics and pandemics, ranging from AIDS, to SARS, MERS, Ebola and, of course, now the COVID-19 pandemic, so I'm going to give you the benefit of my many years of experience.
I consider myself a very close friend of the World Health Organization, but I'm also willing to be a friend, and state honestly when I think it could have done better, or should do better. What you'll get from me is a non-political, factual account of how I think the World Health Organization has performed, and how it can do better. I ask members to not take that as a political statement, because there's been so much politicization of the World Health Organization, particularly by my country, the United States, but also China.
Essentially, there have been several criticisms of the World Health Organization during this pandemic. The first is that it didn't report quickly enough to the outbreak of a novel coronavirus infection in Wuhan, in the Hubei province of China. The second is that it did not inform others quickly enough that there was rapid community spread in that province. The third is that early on in the pandemic it recommended against travel and trade restrictions.
Early on in the pandemic, China was reporting to the World Health Organization that there was very limited or no human-to-human transmission of this novel coronavirus. At that time, the World Health Organization reported the same data and conclusions it had received from China. In retrospect, should the WHO have done anything differently? At most, it could have said, “Here is the data we're getting from China, but we're not able to independently verify it.”
Dr. Tedros, the director general, made the decision—and I respect and admire it—to push China quietly and diplomatically from the inside, but not to criticize China publicly. It should be very clear that under international law and the constitution of the World Health Organization and international health regulations, the WHO had no power to require China to report truthfully. It had no power to go onto Chinese soil without China's permission. Therefore, it's entirely unfair to criticize the World Health Organization for doing something that the world did not give it the power to do.
Going forward, I have a number of proposals, and many of my colleagues do, including those working in public and global health law in Canada, that could improve the situation remarkably and give the WHO the power and authority it needs the next time this kind of horrific event occurs.
The same is true with regard to community spread. There was no way for the WHO to independently verify China's report regarding that.
Then there was the question of travel. It certainly has turned out, for better or worse—and we can discuss that—that the world has now essentially closed its borders due to COVID-19. However, early on the WHO recommended against travel restrictions, even though many countries had already imposed them. After the SARS epidemic, when Canada was instrumental in the reform of the international health regulations, there was a balance between public health, trade and travel, and human rights. Canada was justly concerned that countries were too quick to have trade and travel restrictions during SARS. The same thing happened during the west African Ebola epidemic.
Many epidemics have triggered harmful and unnecessary travel and trade restrictions. In this case, it may very well be that travel restrictions were warranted, but at the time, the WHO was following the international health regulations in the way they were meant to be followed.
I might have done some things differently, but I cannot believe that in the middle of a pandemic it would be right to be casting blame and have finger pointing between countries that would harm the international rule of law and harm international institutions that are so vital to us, such as the World Health Organization.
The WHO is not perfect, but we as a collective community can make it better, and the reason I'm so pleased to be here in front of the Standing Committee on Health in the House of Commons is that I so admire Canadian leadership around the world. You have been a shining light, and I have a close connection in heart to you. My son was born at McMaster University and is a citizen of Canada, and I have very close connections with my colleagues in Canada.
In trying to forge unity in the world in the midst of this chaos, in the midst of conspiracy theories about the origins of the virus and all the blaming among the superpowers, we need to come together. We need to come together now even more than ever, because we're facing the most consequential set of actions in our lifetime, the race to find a COVID vaccine.
As a global community, we need to ensure that the vaccine is safe. Therefore, we don't cut corners and don't skip ethics. We also need to ensure that it's equitably and fairly distributed to all countries around the world, and that we do not see what we've seen in the case of personal protective equipment, testing kits and ventilators, which were a prize for intellectual property competition. I regard vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19 as a global public good, and I look to Canada for your global leadership.
I find it a great honour to be in front of you and I will be very delighted to answer any of your questions.