Thread by @gdemaneuf

@JamieMetzl @ugauthier Indeed. The only thing that China will remember is our weakness.

After WHO head Gro Harlem Brundtland slammed China in 2003 for its cover-up, the answer from China was to make sure it cold never be shamed again, by diluting the power of the WHO.

stuff.co.nz/national/healt…

@JamieMetzl @ugauthier "Those days are gone, she says; member-states have now limited what the head of the WHO can do and say."

@JamieMetzl @ugauthier As soon as 2004, China pushed back and won. It covered up the first two primary cases of SARS-Lab infection at the then top P3 in China (a CDC lab in Beijing) and managed to kick out the WHO from the investigation, not even publishing a report.

gillesdemaneuf.medium.com/the-good-the-b…

@JamieMetzl @ugauthier China is now fully in control of its domestic narrative and has greatly improved its ability to shape the international narrative.

Compliance with international norms is totally unnecessary. The party's best interests won't be threatened.
securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/data-void-chin…

@JamieMetzl @ugauthier The best study of SARS as the first post-Westphalian pathogen is David Fidler's 'SARS, Governance and the Globalization of Disease' (2004).

It is totally naive to imagine that more of the same (if not worse) won't produce the same governance failures.
bit.ly/3BAW6V2

@JamieMetzl @ugauthier @threadreaderapp compile

@JamieMetzl @ugauthier The same David Fidler - senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations - who is quoted as saying:
“This new group can do all the fancy footwork it wants, but China’s not going to cooperate”.
@D_P_Fidler

@JamieMetzl @ugauthier @D_P_Fidler See NY Times article from yesterday for D. Fidler's quote:
web.archive.org/web/2021101220…