1/ The @MaEllenSirleaf @HelenClarkNZ @TheIndPanel #pandemic preparedness & response report makes essential recommendations that must be realized but is also dangerously incomplete. Supporting what's great in the report requires highlighting what is wrong. theindependentpanel.org
2/ Calling #COVID19 “the 21st century’s Chernobyl moment” w/o referencing #China’s role in starting the pandemic is like not mentioning USSR dysfunction & bad reactor design in a #Chernobyl after-action analysis.
3/ The #LastPandemic report presents a sanitized history that significantly let's China off the hook & doesn't mention how #China’s massive & ongoing coverup massively amplified the crisis. #Trump’s catastrophic failure also added fuel to the fire.
4/ The #LastPandemic report fails mention #China's ongoing effort to destroy samples, hide records, imprison journalists & enforce a universal gag order in Chinese scientists. The #SarsCoV2 sequence was released as an act of defiance.
5/ The report doesn't mention the very real possibility #COVID19 stems from an accidental lab incident & makes no recommendations re the regulation of high containment labs around the world doing dangerous work, including the now infamous #gainoffunction. jamiemetzl.com/origins-of-sar…
6/ Hopefully a full investigation will tell whether #COVID19 stems from zoonosis in the wild or an accidental lab incident. Issuing a report about pandemic preparedness w/o referencing the lab incident hypothesis is like issuing a #Chernobyl report w/o referencing reactor design.
7/ The broader issue is that we’re asking int’l committees like this to write reports that won't upset #China, so we get half truths & compromises that fundamentally undermine the credibility of the committees & the int’l orgs w/ which they are associated. This can’t be right.
8/ If our world has a #China problem, we’ve got to be honest about that. Lowering our standards as a price for Chinese cooperation will, in my view, prove a tragic mistake in the medium to long-term, even if it may smooth some waters today.
9/ I fully support nearly all of the outstanding recommendations in the #LastPandemic report, but this is not a moment for half-truths. This is a moment for fearless courage. We've got to be honest about the problems we face to have the best chance of fixing them.
10/ Millions of people are dead because we didn't fully address the pandemic threat after #SARS. It's not coincidental the same coverup that exacerbated SARS1 came back to haunt us in SARS2. Many more will die unnecessarily in future pandemics if we can’t be brutally honest now.
11/ In sum: I fully welcome the #LastPandemic report. Making most if its recommendations happen is critical to our future safety. But we must build on a solid foundation of fearless honesty. Any edifice built on weak foundations will eventually collapse.
12/ What do you think?
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