Bloomberg
Date: Mar 30, 2020
By: Samson Ellis, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) — Taiwan rejected the World Health Organization’s claims it has worked with the island in combating the global coronavirus outbreak, adding fresh criticism of the organization’s handling of the epidemic.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry accused the WHO of being less than entirely truthful about its interaction with the island in a statement Monday, saying its information sharing with the Geveva-based organization was one-sided and hampered by political sensitivities.

“Between 2009 and 2019, we have applied to the WHO to take part in 187 technical meetings but have only been invited to 57 of them,” the ministry said. “This shows that the WHO secretariat places restrictions on Taiwan out of political considerations.”

In a statement over the weekend, the WHO said it was working with Taiwan in epidemiology training and information sharing. The WHO statement came after weeks of escalating criticism of the organization’s treatment of Taiwan as overly deferential to China, culminating in an interview widely shared online in which a senior WHO official appeared to hang up on a reporter when she asked about Taiwan.   [FULL  STORY]