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I lack a lot of context here, but I recently saw a tweet of theirs from January. It was jarring to see how much they uncritically went along with China’s narrat

I lack a lot of context here, but I recently saw a tweet of theirs from January. It was jarring to see how much they uncritically went along with China’s narrative about the virus. I understand a lot about the situation is unprecedented and especially in early weeks there was a lot of confusion and a lot of unknowns. But hopefully this at least will spur them to act more cautiously in regard to info from China.

0xy 7y ago
I don't think their behavior is redeemable, given they continue to lie. After all, the WHO Director-General claimed within the last week without a shred of evidence that he was subject to racist and derogatory attacks from Taiwan's leaders. This is after WHO threw Taiwan under the bus and denied them access to critical health information on the express orders from China. The entire organization is corrupt. Blindly repeating CCP propaganda and punishing China's enemies is not the sign of a healthy organization. Their recommendations were, at times, completely false.
- henearkr 7y ago
  By "their recommandations", you are alluding to when they said that travel bans on China where ineffective (that's true, only complete border closure is effective), and to when they said there was no proof of human-human transmission (that was true when they said it, nobody knew yet, except some Chinese scientists prevented from speaking by their government). I see a lot of these deformed affirmations...
  - AlchemistCamp 7y ago
    Taiwan warned the WHO about human to human transmission on December 31st: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3904054 https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3904054
    - henearkr 7y ago
      I searched for the sources, and all that I found is that Taiwan asked WHO more investigation and verification of China's affirmation. Taiwan did not add any study results or scientific knowledge, so had nothing to really "warn" about. The China "results" were actually biased, so Taiwan was right to ask verification, but that's only retrospectively. At the time, there was no such certainty of their wrongdoing, especially given that they also collaborated by other means.
      - AlchemistCamp 7y ago
        > The China "results" were actually biased, so Taiwan was right to ask verification, but that's only retrospectively. At the time, there was no such certainty of their wrongdoing, especially given that they also collaborated by other means. The reason you didn't find much is that the WHO refused to pass on Taiwan's warning. Taiwanese doctors had direct emails from multiple colleagues in Wuhan, some of whom were punished by the local government for speaking. Doctors getting sick with the virus was direct evidence of human to human transmission. Keep in mind that China also covered up and denied the existence of SARS for months. The WHO's decision to aid in suppressing the information of the epidemic has cost the entire globe countless lives and economic damage. What is it that so motivates you to defend them that you comment 20 times in this thread? FWIW, I've followed the news this time and during SARS from the start, from local media in Taiwan and been deeply disappointed with the WHO and early international reporting both times.
        henearkr 7y ago
        Locked-down... heh... ^^ Also, I like supra-national bodies. They warrant that the non-zero sum game that is our planet and societies still live on... PS: did Taiwan try to pass the warning directly? They could have published through other ways, Twitter being only one among numerous examples. This is a sincere question, not a trap.
        AlchemistCamp 7y ago
        Yes. It was in national media and the TW CDC has a Twitter account that was tweeting about it repeatedly for weeks while the WHO was still downplaying it.
- netsharc 7y ago
  Counterpoint: imagine an international organisation's leader having to stroke Trump's ego to be allowed access into the country. Now replace Trump with Xi. Apparently that's what happened, if this analysis is to be believed: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/15/trump-turns-against-who-to-mask-his-own-stark-failings-on-covid-19-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/15/trump-turns-...
  - Rury 7y ago
    Which seems obvious. The WHO is just an intermediating body between nations. As so, it's not surprising politics is in play behind the core of the organization...
simonh 7y ago
The fact is when the WHO was ringing every alarm bell they could reach, and the CIA and CDC was warning of an imminent threat, Trump was calling it a hoax. If you’re so insistent on punishing those that missed opportunities to take the threat seriously, a bit of consistency in that would be appreciated. The crucial contribution the WHO made was forcing the Chinese to revise their reporting system and publish accurate infection counts in mid January. They could only do that once they had a team on the ground working with the Chinese and that required Chinese cooperation. Up to that point they and we were utterly reliant on China for information.

0xy 7y ago

I don't think their behavior is redeemable, given they continue to lie. After all, the WHO Director-General claimed within the last week without a shred of evidence that he was subject to racist and derogatory attacks from Taiwan's leaders. This is after WHO threw Taiwan under the bus and denied them access to critical health information on the express orders from China. The entire organization is corrupt. Blindly repeating CCP propaganda and punishing China's enemies is not the sign of a healthy organization. Their recommendations were, at times, completely false.

henearkr 7y ago
By "their recommandations", you are alluding to when they said that travel bans on China where ineffective (that's true, only complete border closure is effective), and to when they said there was no proof of human-human transmission (that was true when they said it, nobody knew yet, except some Chinese scientists prevented from speaking by their government). I see a lot of these deformed affirmations...
- AlchemistCamp 7y ago
  Taiwan warned the WHO about human to human transmission on December 31st: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3904054 https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3904054
  - henearkr 7y ago
    I searched for the sources, and all that I found is that Taiwan asked WHO more investigation and verification of China's affirmation. Taiwan did not add any study results or scientific knowledge, so had nothing to really "warn" about. The China "results" were actually biased, so Taiwan was right to ask verification, but that's only retrospectively. At the time, there was no such certainty of their wrongdoing, especially given that they also collaborated by other means.
    - AlchemistCamp 7y ago
      > The China "results" were actually biased, so Taiwan was right to ask verification, but that's only retrospectively. At the time, there was no such certainty of their wrongdoing, especially given that they also collaborated by other means. The reason you didn't find much is that the WHO refused to pass on Taiwan's warning. Taiwanese doctors had direct emails from multiple colleagues in Wuhan, some of whom were punished by the local government for speaking. Doctors getting sick with the virus was direct evidence of human to human transmission. Keep in mind that China also covered up and denied the existence of SARS for months. The WHO's decision to aid in suppressing the information of the epidemic has cost the entire globe countless lives and economic damage. What is it that so motivates you to defend them that you comment 20 times in this thread? FWIW, I've followed the news this time and during SARS from the start, from local media in Taiwan and been deeply disappointed with the WHO and early international reporting both times.
      - henearkr 7y ago
        Locked-down... heh... ^^ Also, I like supra-national bodies. They warrant that the non-zero sum game that is our planet and societies still live on... PS: did Taiwan try to pass the warning directly? They could have published through other ways, Twitter being only one among numerous examples. This is a sincere question, not a trap.
        AlchemistCamp 7y ago
        Yes. It was in national media and the TW CDC has a Twitter account that was tweeting about it repeatedly for weeks while the WHO was still downplaying it.
netsharc 7y ago
Counterpoint: imagine an international organisation's leader having to stroke Trump's ego to be allowed access into the country. Now replace Trump with Xi. Apparently that's what happened, if this analysis is to be believed: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/15/trump-turns-against-who-to-mask-his-own-stark-failings-on-covid-19-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/15/trump-turns-...
- Rury 7y ago
  Which seems obvious. The WHO is just an intermediating body between nations. As so, it's not surprising politics is in play behind the core of the organization...

simonh 7y ago

The fact is when the WHO was ringing every alarm bell they could reach, and the CIA and CDC was warning of an imminent threat, Trump was calling it a hoax. If you’re so insistent on punishing those that missed opportunities to take the threat seriously, a bit of consistency in that would be appreciated. The crucial contribution the WHO made was forcing the Chinese to revise their reporting system and publish accurate infection counts in mid January. They could only do that once they had a team on the ground working with the Chinese and that required Chinese cooperation. Up to that point they and we were utterly reliant on China for information.