https://time.com/5826025/taiwan-who-trump-coronavirus-covid19/
When they heard about
patients falling sick with a mysterious pneumonia in the Chinese city of
Wuhan on Dec. 31, Taiwan’s health officials fired off an email to the
World Health Organization asking for more information.
This four-sentence inquiry has since become fodder for the political brawl between China and the U.S. and threatens to bruise the reputation of the U.N.’s health agency as it leads the fight against an unprecedented global pandemic.
Taiwanese and U.S. officials have seized on the email to argue the WHO ignored an early warning
that the coronavirus could likely be transmitted between people. In the
weeks following the Dec. 31 note, the WHO echoed Chinese officials that
there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission”— even as cases began cropping up that raised suspicion of contagion.
In an interview with TIME, Dr. Lo Yi-chun,
the deputy director-general of Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control
(CDC), says the WHO should have acted on Taiwan’s query by conducting
its own investigation. Instead, he says the WHO “provided a false sense
of security to the world.”
The WHO has defended its handling of the outbreak
and says it relies on member countries like China to accurately report
their findings. It also notes that Taiwan’s email did not explicitly
mention human-to-human transmission, and that the self-governing island
was not the first nor the only one to contact the organization about the
disease.
Again, historical revisionism. Trump is anti-WHO so we must defend the WHO. Trump is anti-China so we must defend China.
ReplyDeleteTaiwan sounded warnings about spread and human-human transmission before anyone else. Here in Canada their public health people called our chief public health doctor and she declined to take the call lest China get offended.
I get it. You hate Trump. But his opposing the WHO doesn't grant them automatic sainthood.
the reverse is also true
ReplyDeletetrump's accusations don't necessarily have any relation to truth!
therefore it is helpful to look at the evidence even when you believe you know the Chinese(WHO Democrats Hilary Obama etc etc.) are evil
Taiwan is not a neutral observer of facts but is engaged in a war with China and vice versa
Taiwan might not be a neutral observer but there is a huge difference between Taiwan (which just wants to be left alone) and China (which just wants to absorb Taiwan and impose its fascist rule there). Taiwan is a functioning democracy with open borders and a free press. China is a fascist dictatorship which lies and corrupts across the globe. Saying "is engaged in a war with China" creates the same kind of false moral equivalence as "Israel is at war with the Arabs", as if both sides are equally bad.
ReplyDelete