Health committee  No, the—

Health committee  Oh, no, they were following WHO advice, very much so. You're focusing on travel. Why Taiwan and South Korea, which is a WHO member—

Health committee  I have to—

Health committee  The major way in which South Korea, Taiwan and other countries dealt with this was by, very early on, using widespread testing and very aggressive contact tracing that included using electronic applications on smart phones, and isolation and quarantine. I worked extraordinarily closely with South Korea and also Taiwan on this, and that was the operative thing.

Health committee  No, I'm not saying that travel restrictions couldn't or wouldn't have been helpful early on. At that time, we were facing a novel virus. Most of the time, travel restrictions weren't used. I think we just don't have the evidence to make strong assertions. We do know that testing, tracing, isolation, quarantine and universal mask wearing are very effective.

Health committee  Well, frankly—

Health committee  You know, frankly, there are countries—mostly the United States, but less so Canada—that didn't take it seriously enough in the sense of really using their public health capacities. Many of the countries that had experienced SARs did do very, very well, as you said. Singapore would be another example of that.

Health committee  The international health regulations are a binding treaty, and Canada is one of that's treaty's signatories, but you're absolutely right that when WHO makes recommendations and once it declares a public health emergency of international concern, those recommendations are recommendations.

Health committee  No, because we don't really have a lot of enforcement or compliance with WHO recommendations.

Health committee  It's not ideal, but I would not blame the World Health Organization for the death rate in Canada; absolutely not. I know WHO well. The WHO is very, very unlikely to have put enormous pressure on Canada. Remember, Canada was one of the major movers under the international health regulations to actually balance trade and travel with public health.

Health committee  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.