Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 13, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba • COVID-19 CDC knew of threat Jan. 3, but infighting, distractions delayed first action until Jan. 31Trump, aides botched response JONATHAN LEMIRE, ZEKE MILLER, JILL COLVIN AND RICARDO ALONSO -ZALDIVAR WASHINGTON — By the time U.S. President Donald Trump first spoke publicly about the coronavirus, it may already have been too late. Interviewed at Davos, a gathering of global elites in the Swiss Alps, the president on Jan. 22 played down the threat posed by the respiratory virus from China, which had just reached American shores in the form of a solitary patient in Washington state. “We have it totally under control,” Trump said on CNBC. “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” In the 11 weeks since that interview, the coronavirus has reached every corner of the globe. It has infected more than 500,000 Americans and killed at least 20,000. It has rewritten the rules of society, isolated people in their homes, closed schools, devastated the economy and put millions out of work. When Trump spoke in Switzerland, weeks’ worth of warning signs already had been raised. In the ensuing month, before the president first addressed the crisis from the White House, key steps to prepare the nation for the coming pandemic were not taken. Life-saving medical equipment was not stockpiled. Travel largely continued unabated. Vital public health data from China was not provided or was deemed untrustworthy. A White House riven by rivalries and turnover was slow to act. Urgent warnings were ignored by a president consumed by his impeachment trial and intent on protecting a robust economy that he viewed as central to his reelection chances. Twenty current and former administration officials and Republicans close to the White House were interviewed for this account about the critical weeks lost before the president spoke to the nation on Feb. 26. Most spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions.• ••'MYSTERIOUS PNEUMONIA' On New Year’s Eve, China informed the World Health Organization of a “mysterious pneumonia outbreak” spreading through Wuhan, an industrial city of 11 million. The government closed a seafood market at the centre of the outbreak, moved all patients with the virus to a specially designated hospital and collected test samples to send to government laboratories. Doctors were told to stay quiet; one who issued a warning online was punished. He later died of the virus. The Pentagon first learned about the new coronavirus in December from open source reports emanating from China. By early January, warnings about the virus had made their way into intelligence reports circulating around the government. On Jan. 3, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Red-field, received a call from his Chinese counterpart with an official warning. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, was alerted to the virus around the same time — and within two weeks was fearful it could bring global catastrophe. • TRUMP, CONTINUED ON A2 0 Failure to execute security policy left Canada exposed Pandemic foreseen in 2004 document JIM BRONSKILL OTTAWA — It was last on a list of eight threat scenarios, but the danger of a global pandemic made the cut when the Liberal government issued a national security policy in 2004. With the then-recent SARS outbreak in mind, the government said it would integrate its approach to public health emergencies with its national security agenda, including when drafting threat assessments. The promise wasn’t fulfilled, leaving Canada woefully exposed during the COVID-19 crisis, says security-and-intelligence expert Wesley Wark. “Despite the idea that we were going to do this with the national security policy, it just never happened,” said Wark, a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Rather, Canada was left to rely on open-source information, including assumptions about timely and accurate reporting from countries like China that stood to suffer from the outbreak, he said in an interview. “With regard to COVID-19, there has been a failure of early warning, and we are reaping the consequences of that.” Did it really matter? All one had to do was turn on the news to see the empty streets of Wuhan and the escalating casualty figures. Wark argues careful analysis of intelligence, including satellite imagery from allies, could have revealed signs such as China’s military movements, the sudden setup of medical facilities and activities around funeral homes — “a picture of the crisis that clearly the Chinese authorities, in the early days, were not anxious to publicize.” A determination in mid-January that COVID-19 could hit Canada hard would have given the country a head start, allowing it to enact a strict travel ban, issue an advisory to stay home during March Break, replenish the national-emergency stockpile and begin buying personal-protective equipment for health workers, he said. • CANADA, CONTINUED ON A4 0 ANDREW MEDICHINI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS EASTER IN ISOLATION Italian police guard St. Peter's Square — the epicentre of Catholicism — as Pope Francis celebrated Easter at a nearly empty Vatican. Around the world, Christians came to terms with celebrating the resurrection of Christ in isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. See stories on pages A2, A3, A4, A5, A8 'Blue Line' launches to little fanfare amid pandemic Few riders as Transit launches express route RYAN THORPE WINNIPEG’S Southwest Transitway, an 11-kilometre express route from downtown to the University of Manitoba and St. Norbert, opened to the public Sunday 11 years after shovels went in the ground. But the $467-million project, which came in under budget and ahead of schedule, did not have the inaugural run that many expected, due to plummeting transit ridership amid the COVID-19 pandemic. By April 1, when Manitoba had serious social distancing measures in place, transit ridership had fallen 70 per cent from 2019. “It’s exciting to see this historic transit infrastructure complete. Between consultation, design, financing and construction, transit staff have built something extraordinary,” said Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface), who chairs the public works committee. “Our city staff and consultants did an incredible job. I took a tour of the nearly complete corridor a few months ago and saw myself how creative and collaborative solutions produced big savings... It’s too bad the pandemic has put a damper on celebrating this accomplishment.” On Sunday, a Free Press reporter rode the new transitway, which is called the “Blue Line,” from Osborne Village to the University of Manitoba and back. The trip took roughly 13 minutes in each direction. Only a handful of other people were riding the bus at the time, some of whom were off-duty transit drivers heading to, or leaving, shifts. • TRANSIT, CONTINUED ON A2 JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg Transit's new Blue Line — an 11-kilometre express route from downtown to the University of Manitoba — opened Sunday, but few were there to see it. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS OPEN BY MAY 1? As the U.S. targets May for restarting the economy, health experts aren't so sure / A4 ZERO NEW CASES MULTI-SITE, MULTI - RISK & & & HOME, ALMOST No Manitoba positives announced Sunday, & & & Forcing nurses to take multiple part-time jobs but province still urging caution / A2 & & & adds to care-home risks: union / B1 Surreal feeling to see the city empty and shops closed, Melissa Martin writes / A5 -e- -e- A_01_Apr-13-20_FP_01.indd A1 0 2020-04-12 10:58 PM ;