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Comment by yostrovs | Hacker News Reader

In January they said the virus doesn't transmit between humans. Then they said travel restrictions are xenophobic. Then they said the world should thank China for its efforts.

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A representative also pretended his audio went out when asked about Taiwan.

Yes, and when he came back and was asked about Taiwan again, he said he already discussed China and ended the conversation. Taiwan doesn't exist according to WHO.

Taiwan is not a member of the UN so WHO kind of have to act that way.

It sucks, but that's a problem with the UN, not with WHO specifically.

WHO, being staffed by scientists, should recognize that Taiwan indeed exists, that it has its own government that responded to the pandemic, and that China is not in charge there. Pretending otherwise leads to losing credibility, as everyone knows Taiwan does indeed exist. I've actually seen it.

Pretending that horribly complex geopolitical issues are simple does not magically make them simple.

Perhaps you could inform your own government?

Unless you happen to live in one of a handful of central American, Caribbean or South American states which do recognise it.

It's a f*cking minefield, if you'll pardon the language, and I can't blame scientists who don't want to touch it with a fifty foot pole.

UN does not recognize Taiwan and WHO is part of it.

Scientists should recognize because it exists but the politicians and governments that pay those scientist don't have to recognize Taiwan because they live in Wonderland I guess. Your logic is impeccable.

This still does not justify this bizarre behavior by the WHO representative.

February 1st to be specific, that was when they tweeted that it doesn't transmit between humans.

The tweet was different though (and AFAIK, much earlier): "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China."

It clearly mentions that they're relaying what Chinese authorities are saying.

If you read e.g. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/09/trump-vs-... the timeline of things is quite different than what you state.

I also don't see how this influenced anything. It took almost every country way too long to respond. Loads of countries thought it'll be fine for them.

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