Wow, People Really Have A Handle On This Coronavirus

It shows!:

A damning pandemic audit, the first to date, cites confusion and mismanagement at the $675 million-a year Public Health Agency, including “limited public health expertise.” Agency President Tina Namiesniowski abruptly resigned twelve days before the internal audit was completed: “I need to take a break.”  

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The blame for this can be placed directly on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with his health and procurement ministers, who lack experience in either field. But the botch-up also may involve bungled foreign policy, according to former finance minister Joe Oliver and a pharmaceutical industry expert who contacted me this week.

“Trudeau inherited a naive affection for China’s dictatorship that devolved into craven passivity in the face of blackmail,” wrote Joe Oliver in these pages two weeks ago. “What else can explain his willingness to work with Tianjin-based CanSino Biologics on a COVID vaccine, given our highly contentious relationship with China and while the two Michaels languish in jail? The deal collapsed when Chinese authorities blocked exports of vaccine to Canada.”

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor John Tory both have a few things in common.

First, they aren’t federal leaders.

Second, they both sought to contact the CEO of Pfizer to enquire about Canada’s vaccine shipments being shut down for at least a full week.

Why do I mention this?

Because the fact that they are doing this shows what a massive leadership vacuum exists at the federal level, as Justin Trudeau again leaves his work to others.

Now, if Trudeau was an avid proponent of decentralization, and if provincial/municipal governments had control over vaccine procurement, then Trudeau stepping aside and leaving the job to others might be justifiable.

But as we have seen, Trudeau loves centralizing power.

And vaccine procurement is a federal responsibility, with more local levels of government unable to buy vaccines since everything goes through the feds.

So, if a provincial premier and a city mayor are having to call the CEO of Pfizer, it means Justin Trudeau has abandoned his leadership role.

 

(Sidebar: it's not like Doug Ford is a world-beater in this but I digress ...) 

But Canada isn't the only global screw-up:

As the CCP virus outbreak worsens in Xingtai city, Hebei Province in northern China, some schools have been converted into makeshift quarantine centers, where authorities usually isolate close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients. They are monitored for their health condition in case they develop COVID-19 symptoms.

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Chinese authorities locked down more cities on Jan. 18 in an effort to curb the spread of the CCP virus. Several others were upgraded from medium- to high-risk for virus spread—meaning residents were required to take nucleic acid tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Meanwhile, food prices have skyrocketed, especially in cities under lockdown. Prices were at least 50 percent higher than in cities not under strict quarantine policies.