On April 23, Eric Morrissette, a spokesman for the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada, said that about one million KN95 masks received from China did not meet the specifications for use in health-care settings. KN95 is a Chinese rating for respirators, and N95 is the U.S. NIOSH rating. PHAC, the federal agency that tested the masks after they arrived, held them back from the provinces and territories and assessed them for use outside health care. Morrissette put the failures down to “intense global competition for personal protective equipment” and “a diverse number of new suppliers and manufacturers,” The Globe and Mail reported.
Canada needs those masks for a pandemic that the World Health Organization put at 4,618,821 confirmed cases and 311,847 deaths worldwide on May 18. Canada’s shortfall has a simple cause: Ottawa bought in haste from new suppliers in China and checked their work only after it had reached Canada. Beijing’s promises of quality cannot close that gap, so the Liberal government should stop accepting replacement masks on faith and buy equipment that is tested before Canadians pay the price.
The same issue continued into May. On May 8, Procurement Minister Anita Anand’s office said that about eight million China-made N95 respirators from a Montreal-based distributor had failed federal specifications, CBC News reported. Of nearly 11 million masks received from that distributor, about one million met the standard and 1.6 million were still being tested. Ottawa suspended shipments from the distributor, and Anand’s office said none of the failed masks had gone to medical use.
European governments found the problem first. On March 27, The Guardian reported that Spain had withdrawn 58,000 Chinese-made coronavirus test kits whose detection rate was about 30 per cent. The next day, the Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported that the Dutch health ministry had recalled about 600,000 of a batch of 1.3 million Chinese FFP2 masks distributed to hospitals. In Spain, as in Canada, the supplier offered replacements, according to El País. Each government found the fault after the goods had arrived, which is the stage at which a failure costs the most time. Other countries, including the Philippines, signalled similar problems with Chinese-made PPE.
Beijing has supposedly answered these complaints with greater regulation. On March 31, China’s Commerce Ministry, known as MOFCOM, joined the customs service and the drug regulator in issuing a rule on medical exports. From April 1, exporters of test kits, medical masks, protective gowns, ventilators, and thermometers had to declare that their products held a Chinese registration certificate and met the importing country’s standards. A ministry statement the same day promised investigation and “zero tolerance” for quality problems, and asked foreign buyers to “choose product suppliers that meet the above quality requirements.” Beijing’s case is that it has set a standard, and that buyers who pick poor suppliers share the blame.
Beijing’s assurances would carry more weight if its diplomats stopped making blistering statements about foreign powers. On March 12, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, wrote on Twitter: “It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!” The post offered no evidence for its charge and demanded data from Washington. The next day his colleague Geng Shuang said there were “varied opinions” on the origin and that “China always considers this a scientific question,” CNN reported. With such aggressive statements coming from Beijing, foreign buyers have good reason to check its other promises, including those about masks.
Ottawa’s own decisions have made the shortfall worse. PHAC deserves credit for testing the masks and keeping the failures away from hospitals. The weakness lies with Public Services and Procurement Canada, the department that buys the equipment and answers to Anand. When the KN95 supplier pledged to replace the failed masks, the government said it expected the replacements and was seeking no refund, according to The Globe and Mail. That decision leaves Canadian money with a supplier whose last shipment failed, and leaves Canadian hospitals waiting on a future shipment.
The government’s own figures show how little of its buying has reached the front line. On April 24, Ottawa said it had ordered more than 155 million N95-type respirators and had received about 5.3 million, with “a significant portion” still under testing. That is about 3.4 per cent of the order in hand by that date, and a smaller share cleared for use. On May 8, Anand’s office said that a large majority of the equipment ordered met standards. That may prove true, but the April 24 figures do not match that claim. Beyond this, the government should be criticized for its slow response in general. As The Economist and the Washington Post reported, Canada continued to delay ordering vaccines from suppliers, a decision that put it behind all G7 peers in getting vaccines for its people, risking innumerable Canadian lives.
Anand should change the terms before the bulk of that order lands. Her department should require independent inspection of medical equipment before it leaves China, and pay suppliers only once a shipment has passed. When a lot fails, Ottawa should claim a refund instead of waiting for replacements from the same source. It should also send MOFCOM the details of every failed lot, so that Beijing’s promise of “zero tolerance” is measured against what Canadian hospitals received.
