Coronavirus: Taiwan denounces late WHO response

Text by: Adrien Simorre Follow

The Taiwanese authorities, particularly effective in the fight against Covid-19, claim to have raised the possibility of human-to-human contagion as of December 31, 2019 with the WHO. The organization finally recognized the risk of transmission twenty-one days later, on January 20.

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Has the World Health Organization (WHO) done enough to assess the contagiousness of COVID-19? In any case, this is the question raised by recent statements by the authorities of Taiwan, a democratic country claimed by China, which today acts as a model student in its management of the Covid-19 epidemic .

The authorities of the autonomous archipelago indeed claim to have sent several emails on December 31 to the WHO and to the Chinese authorities questioning the possibility of human-to-human transmission after the discovery of a respiratory infection in the city of Wuhan. The Chinese authorities had come the same day to officially report the appearance of this new disease, while specifying that no contagion had yet been observed.

Excluded from the WHO due to the obstruction of China, Taiwan has never received an answer to its questions. “ We asked them if there was a possibility of human-to-human transmission. We have asked and reiterated our questions on this subject, ”insisted the director general of the Taiwanese Center for Disease Control, Chou Jih-haw, at a press conference on Tuesday in Taipei . China, and by ricochets the WHO, did not announce that on January 20 a risk of contagion of the virus, that is to say twenty-one days after the Taiwanese mail.

Taiwan's profitable strategy in the face of the epidemic

Contacted by RFI, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges having received an email from Taiwanese senior officials on December 31, 2019, " after the announcement [of the Wuhan authorities]" . “ The message ended by asking if WHO had information to share. [But he] did not mention the possibility of human-to-human transmission , ” said the organization in its written response.

If the exact content of these exchanges remains unknown - neither WHO nor Taiwan have agreed to make these messages public - the fact remains that Taiwan's response to the epidemic has well integrated the possibility of human-to-human transmission. from December 31. The strategy has paid off, as Taiwan now has just over 200 cases, 40 times less than neighboring South Korea.

According to the Financial Times , the Taiwanese diaspora present in China, and in particular the medical personnel, would have helped to transmit the indications of an emerging epidemic before the first Chinese press release. Messages relayed on Chinese social networks on the evening of December 30 would also have put the ear to the ear of the Taiwanese authorities.

WHO caution or Beijing's damaging influence?

In fact, the Taiwanese government imposed sanitary controls on planes from Wuhan on December 31. A few days later, on January 6, the government imposes the wearing of n95 masks (or FFP2 in Europe) on its medical personnel, worried about a risk of contagion in the light of a situation that would be " not fully transparent ”in China.

In contrast, the strategy of both China and WHO appears much more measured. " There is no obvious evidence of human-to-human transmission ," WHO wrote on January 12. The report then allows the organization to advise against " any restrictions on travel and trade with China" . It is not until January 17 that WHO will provide recommendations suggesting the contagiousness of the virus .

If some consider the prudence of the WHO legitimate, others see it as a sign of a harmful influence of Beijing. " WHO simply followed the thread of official announcements from China without ever questioning the merits, transparency and objectivity of this information," said Jean-Yves Heurtebise, lecturer at Fu University. Jen. It is not necessarily proof that the WHO lied, but rather that it believed China without applying the precautionary principle. ”

Beijing discards responsibility for the epidemic

While Beijing seems to be visibly launched into a vast communication strategy aimed at getting rid of responsibility for the epidemic, the Taiwanese announcements have been emulated. In a virtual arms pass with his Chinese counterpart, Morgan Ortagus, spokesperson for the American Foreign Ministry, thus took up the information to attack China on its lack of transparency, castigating " catastrophic consequences" .

Dec. 31 - that's the same day Taiwan first tried to warn WHO of human-human transmission. Chinese authorities meanwhile silenced doctors and refused to admit human-human transmission until Jan. 20, with catastrophic consequences. #CovidCoverup #ChinaTransparencyNow pic.twitter.com/dGYF0zpiqU

For Taiwan, the challenge is more simply to convince the international community to support its reintegration into WHO, a few months before the meeting of the World Health Assembly scheduled for May.

By emphasizing its reactivity to the epidemic, Taiwan hopes to draw attention to an injustice which seems to it to be most fundamental: one of the countries which best contained the epidemic was unable to participate in the coordinated strategy at the scale international by WHO. " This story is the best proof that Taiwan deserves its place at the WHO , judge for his part Stéphane Corcuff, specialist in the geopolitics of the Sinophone world. This is not the case for its director-general [Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus] ”.

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