New Delhi (NVI): Suspecting a “cover up”, Taiwan is vigorously trying to find out whether or not China notified the World Health Organisation (WHO) in December last year that coronavirus could be transmitted from human to human after detection of some cases in Wuhan.
Taiwan insists that it had warned WHO of the possibility of human-to-human transmission in an email sent to the WHO on December 31, when the COVID-19 outbreak first came to public knowledge.
According to Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang, it had learned about the emergence of atypical pneumonia cases in Wuhan on December 31, 2019, which was later known as COVID-19, and immediately alerted the WHO and the Chinese side through email, requesting them to verify.
Atypical pneumonia is what China commonly referred to as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Chuang said, stressing that the disease itself, also caused by coronavirus, is transmittable from human to human.
Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung asked whether China, as a WHO member, informed the world health body of the seven cases and human-to-human transmission, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported.
He asked that If the Chinese did not notify the WHO, “what else would be called a cover up?” and “If (the Chinese) did report it, what else would be deemed a dereliction of duty (on the part of the WHO)?”
The WHO has rejected Taiwan’s claims that it had warned the global health body that the novel coronavirus may be transmitted from human to human.
An agitated Taiwan’s government has now released the email it wrote to the WHO on December 31 last year.
“News resources today indicate that at least seven atypical pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, CHINA. Their health authorities replied to the media that the cases were believed not SARS; however the samples are still under examination, and cases have been isolated for treatment. I would greatly appreciate it if you have relevant information to share with us. Thank you very much in advance for your attention to this matter,” it read.
Chen, who is also head of Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), argued that while Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control did not actually mention “human-to-human” transmissions in the email, it had “strongly hinted” at the possibility, the CNA reported.
He said the letter clearly indicated that health authorities in China confirmed seven patients with atypical pneumonia had been isolated for treatment.
“If being isolated for treatment is not a warning, what situation will constitute a warning?” Chen said.
On Friday, international media, including the Agence France-Presse, a news agency based in Paris, reported that the WHO denied Taiwan’s claim that it mentioned the possibility of human-to-human transmission in its email.
Responding to this, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) accused the WHO of “garbling the email content” in a phone interview with CNA Friday night.
Although Taiwan did not “directly” point out the possibility for human-to-human transmission in that email due to confused information at that time, its email “strongly hinted” of such a scenario based on the characteristics of SARS and observations that patients in China were isolated, Chuang said.
The WHO’s website states that on Dec. 31, WHO’s China office was informed of several cases of unknown pneumonia, and by Jan. 3, Chinese authorities had informed the WHO of 44 cases: https://www.who.int/csr/don/05-january-2020-pneumonia-of-unkown-cause-china/en/
U.S. officials and others have also criticized the WHO for saying there was only limited human-to-human transmission as late as Jan. 14 and not announcing the virus could be transmitted from person to person until 10 days later.
The WHO, however, has argued that it actively dealt with the outbreak, getting information from China and seeking details on its own, while also passing on findings to the global community.
Taiwan is not a member of the WHO because of China’s objections and it lost its observer status in the WHO’s World Health Assembly in the past few years due to tense relations between the current administration and Beijing.
Taiwanese officials have argued that its exclusion means it cannot easily obtain information from or share its expertise with the WHO about disease outbreaks or other health issues.
