Column: WHO should put science over politics to save more lives

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, Taiwan was regarded as one of the most at-risk areas outside of China. Today Taiwan has become one of the most successful stories in containing the pandemic. As of April 15, Taiwan with 23 million people has only 395 confirmed cases and six deaths, without lockdown.

In early March, an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association described how Taiwan had been successfully using big data analytics, new technology and proactive testing — and listed 124 actions taken by Taiwan’s government, based on medical science, to curb the outbreak of the pandemic.

Many countries wish to know how Taiwan did it with transparency. Taiwan would like to share its experiences with the world as well. The most ideal platform for sharing would be the World Health Organization. However, Taiwan has been blocked from fully participating in it for years, out of political obstruction from China.

There are differences in the approaches Taiwan and China took in response to the pandemic. When Taiwan was picking up scientific evidence and preparing for an outbreak, China’s government and WHO officials seemed to be ignoring the facts out of political considerations, which resulted in the world paying the price.

On Dec. 31, 2019, Wuhan health officials announced the discovery of a viral pneumonia with “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.” Taiwan inquired about the disease’s transmissibility between humans from the WHO but received no response. Taiwan, based on its scientific analysis, began health inspections for all passengers arriving on flights from Wuhan.

On Jan. 14, as Chinese and WHO officials reassured that there was no need for alarm, Taiwan dispatched two health experts to Wuhan and found significant probability that the coronavirus was capable of human- to-human transmission.

On Jan. 20, China acknowledged that the virus could be transmitted between humans. The following day, Taiwan activated its Central Epidemic Command Center, while China still carried on business as usual under the priority policy of “internal stability overrides everything.”

On Jan. 22, Taiwan was shut out of the WHO’s emergency meeting which opted to delay declaring the coronavirus a global health emergency. WHO members lost an opportunity to listen to what Taiwan had to say about the alarming signals.

On Jan. 30, the WHO finally declared a global health emergency — but its Director General Tedros A. Ghebreyesus said it wasn’t a vote of no confidence in China, and there was no need for measures that “unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade,” which resulted in a worldwide spread of the virus.

Taiwan’s prompt actions and medical judgments were based on science, while the WHO’s statements and decisions seemed to be too late and politically influenced by China. The WHO should be the agency, as its constitution stipulates, with the goal of “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being.” Taiwan has always wanted to help WHO to reach this goal, but the agency has never accepted it, but let politics kick in.

The WHO has been too friendly to China for more than a decade. This time the world has paid too much a price for its political attitude. It’s not surprising that President Donald Trump would halt U.S. funding to the WHO, as he did this week.

What the world expects of the WHO is professionalism based on science, not politics. Science is based on facts, while politics is based on self-interests. It is high time that the WHO accepted Taiwan so that Taiwan’s scientific approaches in containing COVID-19 can be shared with the world to save more lives.

Michael Tseng is director general of the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Honolulu.