Taiwan makes public December email to WHO showing caution about COVID-19 outbreak

The email, which was sent on Dec 31, 2019, has a clear reference to "atypical pneumonia cases", which had emerged in China's Wuhan that later turned into the Coronavirus epicentre.

An excerpt of the email reads, "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."

Earlier this month, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had accused Taiwan of running a smear campaign of racism against him inviting a sharp criticism from Taipei.

Tedros had said, ".. If you want me to be specific, three months ago, this attack came from Taiwan. We need to be honest. I will be straight today and Taiwan, the foreign ministry also they know the campaign, they didn't dissociate themselves...." (sic)

Following Tedros' comment, China criticised Taiwan for its "venomous" attack on the WHO chief and accused Taipei of conspiring with internet users to spread racist remarks.

Beijing even accused Taiwan of utilising the crisis situation caused by COVID-19 to seek independence from China.

Calling the accusations as "slander" and "extremely irresponsible", Taiwan had hit back at Tedros demanding his apology.

Meanwhile, floods of Twitter users, who were believed to be Taiwanese, had started apologising to the WHO chief for the racist attacks.

However, Taiwan trashed the claims claiming the apology tweets were posted by people in Mainland China.

"Falsely claiming to be Taiwanese and openly admitting to racist attacks on WHO Director General Tedros and begging forgiveness seriously damages our country's international reputation," Taiwan's justice ministry's investigation bureau said in a statement has been quoted by Al Jazeera.

At a time WHO has been accused of colluding with China endangering the lives of people across the country, Tedros in a statement last week said the COVID-19 pandemic should not be politicized as unity is the “only option” to defeat the disease.

Responding to the criticism levelled at the agency, Tedros said, emphasizing that “my short message is, please quarantine politicizing COVID."

"We should work across party lines, across religious lines. We shouldn’t waste time pointing fingers," the WHO chief said.

"For now, the focus should be on fighting the virus. There are many unknowns, and we don’t how it will behave in the future", he said. the disease as "Public Enemy Number One", he also underscored the need for global solidarity at this time. 

After accusing the global organisation of being 'China-centric', US President Donald Trump made WHO suffer practically by halting its funding earlier this week.

Trump on Tuesday announced that he has instructed his administration to stop US funding for the World Health Organization (WHO), which he accused of grossly mismanaging and covering up the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

(Image Credit: UN Photo)