The World Health Organisation (WHO) has heaped praise upon the Chinese Communist Party’s handling of the Coronavirus outbreak – but we are now starting to hear stories of cover-ups and false information being released.
China has also been caught shutting down research into COVID-19 in order to “control the narrative” of the pandemic. The websites of two of China’s leading Universities published academic research about the origins of the virus but were quickly deleted from both websites and scrubbed from the state-controlled internet according to a report.
Doctors were ordered to stay quiet; one who issued a warning online was punished. He later died of the virus.
The WHO failed to mandate that Chinese officials share the viral strains that would allow diagnostic tests to have been produced significantly earlier worldwide.
Taiwan’s Warning
On 31st December 2019 Taiwan’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention sent an email to the WHO alerting them that they were aware of an outbreak of at least 7 cases of atypical pneumonia in Wuhan where the crisis originated.
When asked about the cases by the media Taiwan said China’s health authorities said: “the cases were believed not to be SARS; however samples are still under examination and cases have been isolated for treatment”.
The WHO denied that Taiwan ever alerted them to the potential person-to-person spread of the virus, but Taiwan’s CDC said that they specifically mentioned “atypical pneumonia” reminiscent of SARS, which is transmitted via human contact – public health professionals could discern from this wording that there was a real possibility of human-to-human transmission of the disease.
The WHO ignored the warnings from Taiwan and continued to reiterate China’s narrative that “there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel pathogen” urging countries not to close borders to travellers from China.
Taiwan is located about 80 miles off the Chinese coast and has declared itself an independent nation for over 70 years. China, however has refused to acknowledge Taiwan’s sovereignty and consistently fights to bring them back under Beijing’s control. As a result, China has successfully persuaded the WHO to exclude Taiwan from the organisation.
Taiwan’s population is 1/60th of China’s – it’s death toll has been surprisingly low despite its close proximity to mainland China – 47 recorded deaths (as at 14 April 2020).
Taiwan’s Response
Taiwan’s response to the Coronavirus has been fast, diligent, open and transparent – they were on the ball a full 3 weeks before China would even admit there was a problem – on December 31 2019 when they alerted the WHO of the pneumonia cases, Taiwanese officials began to board planes and assess passengers on direct flights from Wuhan and test for fever and pneumonia symptoms before they were allowed to disembark.
As early as 5th January 2020 notification was expanded to include any individual who had travelled to Wuhan in the past 14 days and had a fever or symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection.
The Taiwanese Government then began a highly effective campaign to educate the public, Taiwan’s Minister of Health gave numerous matter of fact speeches about the risks of coronavirus and how people could protect themselves.
President Tsai Ing-Wen put out a video about how pharmacies were rationing surgical masks – they used a mask rationing system to stop people from hoarding and price hiking masks at the same time they dramatically increased their mask manufacturing.
President Tsai Ing-Wen demonstrated publicly social distancing by using a traditional greeting instead of a handshake. Most importantly the Taiwanese Government at all levels pushed the most important message over and over again “wash your hands, your dirty dirty hands”.
While mainland China deployed stern political slogans in its battle against a deadly new coronavirus Taiwan chose to embrace cuddly mascots and humour to ease public anxiety and educate on best practice.
They also used talking lego robots in schools dispensing disinfectant, a huge hit with the children who have never had such clean hands.
One reason Taiwan has done such a good job fighting the coronavirus is because of their experience with the SARS epidemic in 2003 where more than 400 people in Taiwan were infected, less than a year later Taiwan established the National Health Command Centre (NHCC).
The NHCC serves as a disaster management centre command point, coordinating and advising authorities at regional and central level, so that in the case of a new outbreak, no time or resources are wasted.
The NHCC used technology to merge the databases for Taiwan’s national health insurance system and its travel entry system. “Persons with low risk (no travel to level 3 alert areas) were sent a health declaration border pass via SMS messaging to their phones for faster clearance, those with higher risk (recent travel to level 3 alert areas) were quarantined at home and tracked through their mobile phone to ensure that they remained at home during the incubation period.
So instead of forcibly quarantining 58m people as in China, Taiwan only quarantined a small number of individuals who potentially posed a risk to others. Taiwan have fared far a lot better than many others who have joined the Chinese belt and road initiative – South Korea, Italy and Iran all have serious outbreaks and their Governments all have strong ties to the Chinese Communist party – coincidence? Maybe, maybe not!
Analysis
Taiwan has been more prepared for the coronavirus than any other country, but the WHO put politics first.
And for that reason, The World Health Organisation and the Chinese Communist Party must pay dearly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFxmiV2_OHs
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/taiwan-who-coronavirus-china/
I wrote my first article for Unity News Network on 30th December 2019, and I have been writing ever since – my library is now well in excess of 200 articles.
Alternative media is essential in these times of unprecedented censorship and mainstream bias, which has ramped up exponentially during the past 2 years. The overton window of “acceptable opinion” is growing every narrower.
Having a citizen’s log, cataloguing the twists and turns of life during these turbulent times is essential.
Thank you Unity News Network for allowing me a voice on your platform.
