On December 31, Taiwan had written to the World Health Organisation raising questions about the human-to-human contact spread aspect of the Wuhan coronavirus but was ignored by the WHO. As per reports, the organisation also denied providing critical information about how to combat the deadly pathogen.
The facts regarding Taiwan’s email to alert WHO to possible danger of #COVID19#email內容 #TaiwanCanHelp #TaiwanIsHelping @WHO
— MOHW of Taiwan (@MOHW_Taiwan) April 11, 2020
英文新聞稿：https://t.co/AvyHulhrlU pic.twitter.com/nYvmY4R2ao
On April 11, Taiwan released the contents of the email. When 7 atypical cases of pneumonia were reported in Wuhan, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wrote to WHO informing that China had reported that the cases were not that of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) even though samplers were under examination at that time.
Taiwan’s CDC stated, “However because at the time there were as yet no cases of the disease in Taiwan, we could not state directly and conclusively that there had been human-to-human transmission.”
Taiwan has been living under the shadow of China that has refused to accept its sovereignty for 70 years. As such, the country was excluded from the World Health Organisation. It is crucial to mention that the WHO initially denied the existence of any conclusive evidence that could prove human-to-human transmission.
The World Health Organisation failed to persuade China to share live strains of the Wuhan Coronavirus that could have been used for diagnostic tests and helped contain the pandemic. They also denied ever being cautioned by Taiwan about the potential human-to-human transmission of the Chinese virus.
Erroneous Claims of WHO
Earlier, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had conceded the misleading nature of an “erroneous” situation report wherein it confused India’s “cluster of Coronavirus cases” with that of “community transmission.” Speaking to a news outlet, WHO informed that the error has been corrected.
Community transmission is defined as the spread of an infection where its source can’t be identified. It is the third stage of disease transmission, while India is currently at stage two or local transmission, where the Coronavirus is spreading among close contacts and the source of the infection can be identified.
The organisation has told a news outlet that the error had now been fixed. When the WHO had alleged instances of “community transmission” of COVID-19 in the country, the government of India had denied all such claims.
Allegations of Cover-up
On April 8, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley had said that the relationship between China and the WHO needed to be investigated. She made the comments during her appearance on Sean Hannity’s talk show on Fox News. Haley said that the relationship between China and the World Health Organisation was a threat to the sovereignty of the United States of America.
She also noted that Taiwan had warned the WHO of human-to-human transmission but it was summarily ignored due to China’s influence. “Why did it take a whole month for the World Health Organization to respond? You want to know why that is? Because China has kept Taiwan from being a member of the World Health Organization,” Haley said.
WHO Chief Tedros was accused of covering up epidemics in his home country Ethiopia even while he was the health minister in the government in the days before he became the director of the WHO. A prominent global health expert, who was also an informal advisor to Tedros’s rival for the WHO top spot, had accused him of covering up three epidemics in Ethiopia
The US stops Funding for WHO
The US President Donald Trump had also suspended funding for the World Health Organisation until a review was conducted to assess its role in mismanaging the Chinese coronavirus outbreak.
He said, “Everybody knows what is going on there. American taxpayers provide between 400-500 million dollars per year to the WHO and in contrast, China contributes roughly 40 million dollars a year or even less. As the organisation’s leading sponsor, the United States has a duty to insist on full accountability. One of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations. “
