Taiwan can serve as an international contributing member to promote and actualize the WHO’s goal of universal health coverage, a group of civic organizations said in Taipei yesterday as they urged the nation’s participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA) in light of a global health crisis caused by the outbreak of a new coronavirus infection in China.
Taiwanese authorities have not been invited to emergency meetings held by the WHO about the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, due to the body’s affiliation with the UN, which does not recognize Taiwan.
Critics have argued that Taiwan’s exclusion could make it a “blind spot” in the international response, and governments including the US, Japan and Canada, as well as the EU, expressed support for Taiwan’s participation in the body.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Representatives of Taiwan United Nations Alliance president Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) said that the group has lodged protests during several WHA meetings in Geneva, Switzerland.
He is more optimistic this year and hopes that a vote could be held at the WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, for member states to show their support for Taiwan’s participation, he said.
Tsai made the remarks during a visit to the Legislative Yuan along with representatives from the Global Taiwanese Medical Alliance to appeal to the legislative caucuses to pass a legislative resolution calling on the WHO to invite Taiwan to the WHA.
The resolution should protest China’s efforts to exclude Taiwan from the WHO, support Taiwan’s attendance at the world body and urge the WHO to remove Taiwan from China’s epidemic area, because Taiwan is not part of China, they said in a written petition.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Hsiu-fang (黃秀芳), who accompanied the groups, said that all four legislative caucuses responded positively to the petition.
“Now is a very good time for Taiwan to ask for WHO participation, because some countries still do not understand the relationship between Taiwan and China during the global 2019-nCoV outbreak,” she said.
“We should let them know that Taiwan is Taiwan, not China, and that by attending the WHO, Taiwan could contribute to global healthcare by sharing its excellent healthcare experiences,” she added.
In related news, more than 200,000 people have signed an online petition urging the WHO chief to resign his post over his handling of the outbreak.
“We strongly think Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is not fit for his role as WHO director general. We call for the Immediate Resignation of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,” said the petition initiated on Friday by Osuka Yip on Change.org.
“On January 23rd, 2020, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declines to declare China virus outbreak as a global health emergency. As we all know, the coronavirus is not treatable at the moment. The number of infected and deaths has risen more than 10 times (infected from 800 - close to 10,000) within only five days. Part of it is related to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus underestimated the coronavirus,” it said.
The WHO did not declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern until Friday.
Additional reporting by CNA
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