Article content

A sinking feeling of disappointment is the best way to describe how I feel reading through memos and briefing notes prepared for federal cabinet ministers attempting to deal with COVID-19.

The documents, released through the Commons health committee, show a government persistently downplaying the threat of coronavirus until it was too late.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or LILLEY: Documents on COVID show feds slow to respond to threat Back to video

On Jan. 28, a memo to federal employees in China not only warned against visiting Hubei province — the area around the city of Wuhan — it also told all federal workers in China to start wearing personal protective equipment, such as gloves, while dealing with the public.

Two weeks later, the same federal government was still pondering whether to add extra screening for passengers returning from Hubei and had not told the public to consider using PPE. In fact, they advised against it.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Maybe because the same memo shows that Health Minister Patty Hajdu and her officials already knew global supplies of PPE were becoming harder to get and that the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile was already low.