US Representative Ted Yoho on Friday sent a letter to US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, urging him to visit Taiwan next month to attend an international workshop on public health and advocate for Taiwan’s participation in the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA).
“I would like to bring to your attention the upcoming Global Cooperation and Training Framework [GCTF] meeting that Taiwan will be hosting from April 30 to May 3, 2019, in Taipei. I urge you to attend this important event,” Yoho said in the letter.
This year’s GCTF event, a joint Taiwan-US program established in 2015, is to be an international workshop on treatment guidelines for drug-resistant tuberculosis, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
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Through the GCTF, Taiwan and the US have conducted training programs for experts to combat Middle East respiratory syndrome, dengue fever and the Zika virus, Yoho said, urging the US not to undervalue Taiwan’s financial and technical contributions to global health initiatives.
“Since 1996, Taiwan has invested over [US]$6 billion in international medical and humanitarian aid efforts, impacting over 80 countries. In 2014, Taiwan responded to the Ebola crisis by donating [US]$1 million and providing 100,000 sets of personal protective equipment,” the Republican legislator said.
Despite Taiwan’s contributions, it has suffered “unnecessary exclusion” from international bodies that address health initiatives at the behest of China, particularly the WHO, which was why he introduced bill H.R.353 in the US House of Representatives to direct the US secretary of state to develop a strategy for helping Taiwan regain observer status at the WHA, Yoho said.
The bill was passed unanimously by the House on Jan. 22.
“While this bill has received support in Congress, I ask for your help in advocating for Taiwan’s inclusion in the 2019 World Health Assembly meeting,” Yoho said. “Diseases know no borders, and Taiwan’s needless exclusion from global health cooperation increases the dangers presented by global pandemics.”
The next WHA is to take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from May 20 to May 28. Taiwan participated in the WHA as an observer from 2009 to 2016, but has not received an invitation ever since due to pressure from China.
At last year’s WHA, Azar expressed his disappointment at Taiwan’s exclusion, saying that it was difficult to reconcile global concern over cross-border infectious diseases with the exclusion of Taiwan and its 23 million people from the gathering.
The ministry yesterday issued a news release thanking Yoho, the US Congress and the US government for their long-standing efforts to push for Taiwan’s participation at health-related international events.
“We welcome more like-minded nations to join hands with Taiwan in safeguarding the health and security of the entire human race,” the ministry said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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