• Global health body accused of playing word games after denying that island had asked if virus could be transmitted between humans
• Taiwan, which is not a WHO member, had asked for information on December 31 but received no reply

South China Morning Post
Date: 11 Apr, 2020
By: Reuters

Tension flared again on Saturday as Taiwan accused the World Health Organisation (WHO) of playing word games in a dispute over details it sought in an email querying if the new coronavirus could be transmitted between people.

Taiwan is not a WHO member, because of objections from mainland China, which claims the island as its own and deems it to have no right to membership of international bodies.

Such an approach, Taiwan says, deprived it of timely information to fight the virus, and it accused the WHO of having ignored its communications early in the Covid-19 pandemic, which has infected 1.6 million people and killed 100,000 worldwide.

Last month, Taiwan said it had received no reply from the WHO to a December 31 query for information on the outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan, including whether it could be transmitted between people.    [FULL  STORY]