Thread by @JamieMetzl

1/ If you haven’t seen @MattPottinger’s interview on @facethenation, I strongly encourage you to do so at this link. Follow this full thread for my response.

2/ @MattPottinger is someone I respect greatly. His efforts to try to do the right thing within the chaos & malfeasance of the #Trump White House is nothing short of heroic. I urge you to learn more about Matt’s work in this excellent @newyorker piece. newyorker.com/magazine/2021/…

3/ In @MattPottinger’s @facethenation interview, he rightly rakes China over the coals. It's my view the #COVID19 catastrophe would likely not have happened but for the failure of the Chinese government rooted in the distinct pathologies of China’s authoritarian system.

4/ You can learn more about how China’s catastrophic failures made #COVID19 possible at this link. I encourage you to review all the links and judge for yourself. jamiemetzl.com/origins-of-sar…

5/ Matt is also a sharp critic of the @WHO. There is no doubt the WHO failed to sound the alarm early enough and was not able to send emergency investigators to China in the first critical weeks after the outbreak became known. WHO director @DrTedros agrees.

6/ But while we must call out @WHO’s shortcomings, it's essential we recognize the biggest problem is that our governments created it w/o control of its budget, an independent means of gathering information, a sufficient staff, or a mandate to do its job. jamiemetzl.com/we-cant-get-ou…

7/ I commend Matt’s for recognizing that “grave missteps” were made by the #Trump administration but believe he does not go far enough. The Trump administration’s response to #COVID19 is a primary reason why America’s per capita #COVID19 death rate in 4,300 times that of #Taiwan.

8/ But @mattpottinger is also correct that not all the blame falls on the Trump administration. Multiple administrations from both parties have overseen the decay of America’s public health infrastructure. His recommendations for @CDC reform make a lot of sense.

9/ The US gov't civilian agencies have lots to learn from the US military. We need an ongoing pandemic preparedness and response capability & a lessons learned process. Learn more about this in the @CNN editorial by @HansaBhargavaMD @andrewhessel and me. cnn.com/2020/04/29/opi…

10/ Both Matt & @jakejsullivan call on @WHO to carry out a thorough investigation into the #COVID19 origins. Unfortunately, the current WHO #COVID19 investigation process is deeply flawed & compromised. See this @WSJ editorial by @Ayjchan & @mattwridley. wsj.com/articles/the-w…

11/ The core problems of the @WHO #COVID19 investigation stem from its deeply compromising terms of reference, negotiated between @WHO & China following the May 2020 World Health Assembly resolution. See this annotation of those terms by @gdemaneuf. drive.google.com/file/d/1rx0W2e…

12/ The @WHO team can't simultaneously investigate & partner with China on the investigation. The Feb 9 @WHO-China #COVID19 #Wuhan press conference was such a disaster for this reason. Here’s the statement I released just after. jamiemetzl.com/jamie-metzl-st…

13/ By asserting the frozen food hypothesis required further study but the lab leak didn't, the @WHO team lost credibility. The German team member even told the @NYTimes they included the frozen food theory “to respect, a bit, the findings” of the Chinese scientists." What?

14/ Given there's probably more circumstantial evidence for the accidental lab leak hypothesis than for any of the other possibilities, it would be absurd to stop investigating that now. We should actually be massively stepping up such efforts. jamiemetzl.com/origins-of-sar…

15/ I was very encouraged when @DrTedros released a statement on February 12 stating that “all hypotheses remain open and require further analysis and study.” All hypotheses by definition includes the lab leak hypothesis.

16/ But there’s are deeper problem with the @WHO expert committee. One of its members, @peterdaszak, has a deep conflict of interest as a former funder of gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. I have called for him to be removed from the committee.

17/ @DrTedros has wisely raised the possibility of additional members being added to the @WHO team. At very least experts in the forensic investigation of lab accidents and in the dangers of gain of function research should be added. @mlipsitch might be a good addition.

18/ But let's be honest. What the @WHO expert team carried out in #Wuhan was also not an investigation. It was a CCP-chaperoned study tour where all information and contacts were heavily curated. Many Chinese apparatchiks accompanies the team at every moment.

19/ The @WHO report will be a joint report between the expert cttee and their Chinese counterparts. Does anyone, including the entire @WHO staff, believe such a report can get to the bottom of how #COVID19 began, especially after the disastrous February 9 #Wuhan press conference?

20/ The @WHO experts are trying to get as much information as they can, which is admirable, but they run the risk of being unwitting co-conspirators in Chinese obfuscation and in the CCP's active and ongoing coverup.

21/ That’s why I’ve been saying so repeatedly that we need a full & unrestricted international forensic investigation into the origins of #COVID19 with full access to all relevant records, samples, & personnel. The @WHO expert committee in its current form is not capable of that.

22/ We must articulate the type of investigation that is needed to understand the origins of #COVID19 and our many failures as a foundation for building a better future.

23/ It would be better for the @WHO team to articulate what is needed than to release a joint report designed to assuage Chinese sensitivities. Once we set a standard for what a full investigation looks like, we can measure Chinese “cooperation” against that standard.

24/ All of this leaves @WHO in a very precarious position. @DrTedros has said “I hear that this is a WHO study or investigation. It’s not. It’s an independent study,” but the press and world are not making that distinction.

25/ So we have an independent @WHO #COVID19 study group making claims based on limited access and information, overly influenced by the Chinese government, seeming to represent WHO when it does not, & with a mandate that limits which hypotheses it can examine. This is dangerous.

Here is a link to threads 26-31 continuing this thread.

https://twitter.com/JamieMetzl/status/1363671230507716612?s=20

26/ Because this thread previously was cut in two, I am adding posts 26-21 to the original thread.

27/ This process puts the @WHO at risk just when we need it most. However the pandemic began, making sure the entire global population is vaccinated via #COVAX is essential to the safety of everyone on earth.

28/ That’s why we need to help rescue @WHO from the likely train wreck of the #COVID19 investigation. We need to renegotiate terms of reference for a full and unrestricted forensic investigation.

29/ The Chinese government likely has its reasons for its ongoing #COVID19 coverup, but we have no reason to play along. We must support an unrestricted forensic investigation through the @WHO and also start examining additional ways of getting to the bottom of these failures.

30/ Here’s my @thehill editorial calling for a 9/11-style commission looking at the failures of #China, the US, & @WHO. Every country could do the same. We could also do this jointly through the OSCE or summit of democracies. thehill.com/opinion/white-…

31/ The basic point is this: We have a real problem. 2.5 million people are dead from a totally avoidable pandemic. It is likely that we’ll face even more dangerous pathogens in the near future. Shame on us if we aren’t doing all we can, fearlessly, to prepare.