The Foreign Service Journal, June 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2020 15 nel and locally engaged staff have assisted individuals in crisis by pro- viding emergency consular services, repatriating United States citizens abroad, surging the agriculture quarantine and inspection program, providing technical assistance and emergency and humanitarian relief to other countries and populations, and pursuing other efforts that have saved lives; Whereas the foreign affairs agencies and the American Foreign Service Association have observed Foreign Service Day in May for many years; and Whereas it is both appropriate and just for the United States as a whole to recognize the dedication of the men and women of the Foreign Service and to honor the members of the Foreign Service who have given their lives in the loyal pursuit of their duties and responsibilities representing the interests of the United States and of its citizens: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate— (1) honors the men and women who have served, or are presently serving, in the Foreign Service of the United States for their dedicated and important service to the United States; (2) calls on the people of the United States to reflect on the ser- vice and sacrifice of past, present, and future employees of the Foreign Service of the United States, wher- ever they serve, with appropriate ceremonies and activities; and (3) designates May 1, 2020, as “United States Foreign Service Day” to commemorate the 96th anniver- sary of the Foreign Service of the United States. that America might just get through the pandemic, whose peak in the United States we were flying toward. I felt calmer than I had in a few hours. I’m currently writing a book on mission-driven bureaucrats—that’s what I’d been researching in Senegal; and here was one standing right in front of me (and not the first—embassy staff in Dakar were also wonderful, dedicated and kind throughout this process). Also true to the narrative of the book, these mission-driven bureaucrats are very hard to “see” most of the time. The name of the relevant State Department bureau (Medical Services) doesn’t have any obvious mention of Operational Medicine at all. I figured out who the director of the Operational Medicine division was (Wil- liamWalters, a senior civil servant) only by finding a right-wing screed criticiz- ing him and State for bringing infected Americans home. So I’m writing this in large part to say thank you to Mr. Walters, @StateDept, and all the other heroes—from grocery store attendants to hospital orderlies to doctors—sacrificing of themselves these weeks. FSO Duo Raises Money for Masks F oreign Service Officers Jack Dart and Kevin Miles, posted to Shang- hai, launched a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising money to pay for 10,000 masks for healthcare workers in each of five American cities hit hard by the novel coronavirus. At press time, they had reached nearly $111,000 out of their $150,000 goal. The pair say they are sourcing masks from reputable Chinese suppliers to send directly to healthcare providers. Their efforts so far have raised money to send 10,000 masks to New York City, and they hope to send 10,000 masks each to Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans and Boston, as well. Visit 10kmasks.org to learn more. State Cables Warned of Safety Issues at Wuhan Lab A fter U.S. diplomats visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology multiple times in early 2018, they were so concerned about safety conditions there that they wrote two cables warning Washington about a lack of proper safety procedures at the WIV, and the possibility that the lab’s research on coronaviruses and bats could risk a new SARS-like pandemic. That’s according to an April 14 op-ed in The Washington Post by foreign policy columnist Josh Rogin. “The cables have fueled discus- sions inside the U.S. government about whether this or another Wuhan lab was the source of the virus—even though conclusive proof has yet to emerge,” Rogin writes. “Sources familiar with the cables said they were meant to sound an alarm about the grave safety concerns at the WIV lab, especially regarding its work with bat coronaviruses,” Rogin adds. “The embassy officials were calling for more U.S. attention to this lab and more sup- port for it, to help it fix its problems.” The State Department declined to comment for his story, Rogin said. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley told reporters on April 14 that U.S. intelligence officers had looked into the possibility that the coro- navirus originated in the laboratory and determined that the “weight of evidence” points to “natural” origins. “But we don’t know for certain,” he added.