Taiwan accuses WHO of downplaying coronavirus toll in China

Taiwan accused the World Well being Group of downplaying the unfold of the coronavirus from China and launched an e mail despatched to the UN company in December questioning whether or not COVID-19 might be transmitted from individual to individual, in line with stories.

Taiwan’s Well being Minister Chen Shih-chung stated the e-mail, written in English, was despatched to the WHO on Dec. 31 and famous that “information assets at present point out that not less than seven atypical pneumonia circumstances have been reported in Wuhan, China.”

“Their well being authorities replied to the media that the circumstances have been believed to not be SARS, nonetheless the samples are nonetheless underneath examination, and circumstances have been remoted for therapy,” he quoted the textual content of the emails, in line with Reuters and Fox Information.

Extreme Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, was additionally attributable to a beforehand unknown virus that originated in China.

It killed 774 individuals worldwide in 2003.

Chen stated it ought to have been obvious to any medical skilled that the circumstances described in the e-mail would have required isolation and stated the WHO was splitting hairs over the wording.

“If being handled in isolation will not be a warning, then what’s?” he requested.

Taiwan’s Facilities for Illness Management stated the wording about “atypical pneumonia” made it clear “there was an actual chance of human-to-human transmission.”

However as a result of on the time there have been no coronaviruses circumstances in Taiwan, their well being officers couldn’t conclusively decide that sort of transmission occurred.

WHO, in an announcement to Reuters, stated they didn’t obtain an e mail about person-to-person transmission.

China, which refuses to acknowledge Taiwan’s sovereignty, has pressured the WHO to not acknowledge the nation.

Taiwan has declared itself an unbiased nation for greater than 70 years.

The WHO has been criticized for pandering to China in the early days of the outbreak.

And Beijing has been accused of failing to precisely report the quantity of circumstances – inflicting different international locations to underplay their response to the outbreak.

As late as Jan. 14, the WHO stated “there was no proof of human-to-human transmission” of the virus.

It didn’t declare the coronavirus as a pandemic till March 11.

There are practically 2 million circumstances worldwide, and the dying toll has exceeded 120,000.