Australia is to push for an international investigation into the COVID-19 pandemic at next month’s annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, its prime minister said yesterday.
Australia wants the WHO to be strengthened and is suggesting introducing inspectors with the power to enter a nation to respond more quickly to a health crisis in the style of weapons inspectors.
Australia sits on the executive board of the assembly, which determines WHO policies and appoints the director-general. The assembly is due to meet on May 17.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The pandemic is believed to have emerged in a market selling wildlife in Wuhan, China, late last year. It has spread around the world infecting more than 2.6 million people and killing more than 184,000.
The WHO’s response to the outbreak has become contentious, with US President Donald Trump accusing it of being “China-centric” and suspending US funding.
Diplomats believe the meeting opens the door for discussion of Australia’s call for an inquiry because agenda items already include calls for a “lessons learned” review of health emergencies.
“The World Health Assembly is coming up in May. There are opportunities to pursue that matter there and that is our first port of call,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
Australia has overcome the worst of its coronavirus outbreak, which is why it has moved on to lobbying other nations to support its call for an inquiry, but it understood that other nations were still dealing with high death rates, sources said.
Morrison has called leaders in France, Germany and the US, and is expected to lobby Britain and Canada as Australia seeks support from “like-minded” nations.
France and Britain on Wednesday said that it was not the time for an investigation.
Morrison told reporters he understood hesitation about the timing and played down suggestions China would be targeted.
“Our purpose here is just pretty simple, we would like the world to be safer when it comes to viruses,” he said.
Although the proposal would be for a broad review of the coronavirus outbreak and the WHO response, which could then propose ways to strengthen WHO powers, Morrison said that he supported a weapons-inspector-style arrangement for health emergencies that nations would sign up to.
“They don’t have a roving commission to go anywhere they want in the world, but if you are going to be a member of a club like the World Health Organization there should be obligations and responsibilities attached,” he said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the agency would carry out an “after-action” review when the pandemic is over.
Former Australian diplomat and intelligence chief Richard Maude said Australia had led coalitions of nations on issues including disarmament, non-proliferation and Russia’s downing of flight MH17.
“Australia has a good record of getting things done in multilateral processes, including the United Nations,“ said Maude, executive director of policy at the Asia Society Australia. “The problem for Australia right now is that while the objectives — greater transparency and learning lessons — are reasonable and important, the issue of the origins of the virus and the path of its transmission have become so caught up in geopolitics and deteriorating US-China ties that China is very unlikely to cooperate.”
In related news, China yesterday announced that it would give another US$30 million to the WHO to help in the global fight against the pandemic, days after Washington said it would freeze funding.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) said that the new donation would be in addition to a previous US$20 million committed and would help “strengthen developing countries’ health systems.”
He added that China’s contribution to the UN agency “reflects the support and trust of the Chinese government and people for the WHO.”
In announcing the funding freeze last week, Trump accused the WHO of covering up the seriousness of the outbreak in China before it spread.
He has also charged the WHO with being “very China-centric,” despite Washington’s heavy funding.
US taxpayers provided between US$400 million and US$500 million per year to the WHO, while “in contrast, China contributes roughly US$40 million a year and even less,” Trump said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique