The coronavirus, which originated in China, could have been stopped from turning into a pandemic if the World Health Organisation paid heed to Taiwan's early warnings regarding the human to human transmission of the virus.
However, the WHO chose to ignore the warnings by Taiwan at China's behest and now the whole world is paying the price of it. Emerging from China's infamous wet market, the virus has so far infected at least 1.216 million people around the world. The global death toll from the deadly virus stands at 65,652.
New York-based writer Wilfred Chan wrote for The Nation that despite early warnings from Taiwanese officials, the organization kept the island cut off from its global information networks. Now, it may be the rest of the world that's paying the price.
Scientists from Taiwan informed the WHO as early as December 31 about the human to human transmission of the Chinese Virus from Wuhan but not only did WHO suppress this information, it continued peddling the lie that it doesn't spread from human to human, Chan stated in the article.
Taiwan is an island nation off the southeastern coast of China, which the WHO refuses to recognise as a sovereign state.
The WHO also allowed China to report Taiwan's coronavirus numbers as part of its own total, instead of reporting Taiwan's numbers alone--a conflation that created headaches for the smaller nation.
Since the crisis unfolded, it seems Beijing is steering the WHO, which was so far known as an independent organization. Many experts believe that China has so much influence over the WHO because of its funding.
China reported the first case of coronavirus in late December but the WHO intervened only at the end of January.
The WHO only come to the forefront when its Director-General Tedros Adhanom visited the country. Before that, it was repeating Chinese government statements and was ignoring Taiwanese doctors.
After the Beijing visit, though, WHO said in a statement that it appreciated "especially the commitment from top leadership and the transparency they have demonstrated." Only after the meeting did it declared, on January 30, a public health emergency of international concern.
By the time the WHO finally declared a global health emergency on January 30, nearly 8,000 cases had been confirmed by Chinese authorities, hundreds of people had died, and the virus had surfaced in at least 18 countries outside of China.
Still, the WHO continues to praise China. "This declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China," said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "On the contrary, the WHO continues to have confidence in China's capacity to control the outbreak."
Recently, Japan becomes the first country to highlight the unscrupulous collusion of the Chinese Communist Party and the WHO.
Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso had said that the World Health Organisation should change its name. It shouldn't be called the WHO, it should be renamed the Chinese Health Organization (CHO).
Speaking to Japanese lawmakers on Sunday, Aso referenced a Change.org petition calling for the removal of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"Although the details are murky, the WHO's previous Director-General was a Chinese national, and at that time, there were complaints all around," Aso said.
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