The Taiwanese government has said it sounded the alarm at the end of last year about possible human-to-human transmission of a new coronavirus when it first started to strike people down in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Yet its warning went unheeded by the World Health Organization (WHO), of which the island is not a member due to disputes over its statehood. The self-governing island’s officials have confirmed a previous report by the Financial Times claiming the WHO failed to pass on Taiwan’s warning about the contagious pathogen Covid-19 at the end of December. The warning was issued after cadres in Wuhan vehemently repudiated claims that a mysterious form of pneumonia was spreading among the city’s residents. They decreed that New Year celebrations and annual municipal conferences would proceed as scheduled.

Quoting several Taiwanese officials, including Vice-President Chen Chien-jen, an epidemiologist-turned-politician, the British broadsheet alleged that despite Taiwan’s concerns, the WHO failed to act.

Source: WHO ‘refused to act’ on Taiwan’s virus alert – Asia Times