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He "commented about the abuse" in order to deflect from a question about why the WHO didn't take Taiwan's warnings seriously.

dijit 7y ago
I think you're missing the point. Taiwan does not exist as an entity to the WHO because it is not recognised by the United Nations. As much as Taiwan has valuable lessons it's basically akin to asking why the WHO isn't listening to the municipality of sealand. The journalist asking that question in the first place knew that Taiwan is a political hotbed and was looking for a story, they got one and the WHO is under the bus- at a time when we need a united front in healthcare globally. And the racist abuse was entirely real: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/taiwan-rejects-who-chiefs-claim-of-campaign-against-him-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/2020/04/09/ab1c8e8a-7a0e-11ea-a311-adb1344719a9_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/taiwan-rej...
- jdminhbg 7y ago
  If you think that's an acceptable answer, then Tedros could have given it as an answer instead of an irrelevant diatribe about mean people online. Public health is, like aviation for example, one of those things where recognition of "legitimate" governments has to take a back seat to de facto reality. If the WHO is unable to deal with Taiwan, then we need a different organization that can.
  - dijit 7y ago
    Reality doesn't work this way. The only way to have real collaboration on a global level is to take no sides of any kind and only agree with absolute consensus. Anything else is picking a side and alienates part of the world. I'm sorry that the WHO isn't playing into the politics you or I like, in this case it almost certainly would have saved lives, but that's kind of the point. As soon as they "wake up to the reality" of something such as, idk, Crimea being Russian territory? then suddenly they're alienating Ukraine and its allies. It's stupid, and fickle, but the only winning move is not to play.
    - jdminhbg 7y ago
      They clearly took a side, I don’t know how you can look at it any other way. In your counter factual with Russia, of course they should recognize the de facto situation and send aid if something terrible happens there, regardless of how mad that makes Ukraine. It doesn’t really matter whether my politics were assuaged, though, because they pissed off the majority of their funding and had it cut off. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

dijit 7y ago

I think you're missing the point. Taiwan does not exist as an entity to the WHO because it is not recognised by the United Nations. As much as Taiwan has valuable lessons it's basically akin to asking why the WHO isn't listening to the municipality of sealand. The journalist asking that question in the first place knew that Taiwan is a political hotbed and was looking for a story, they got one and the WHO is under the bus- at a time when we need a united front in healthcare globally. And the racist abuse was entirely real: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/taiwan-rejects-who-chiefs-claim-of-campaign-against-him-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/2020/04/09/ab1c8e8a-7a0e-11ea-a311-adb1344719a9_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/taiwan-rej...

jdminhbg 7y ago
If you think that's an acceptable answer, then Tedros could have given it as an answer instead of an irrelevant diatribe about mean people online. Public health is, like aviation for example, one of those things where recognition of "legitimate" governments has to take a back seat to de facto reality. If the WHO is unable to deal with Taiwan, then we need a different organization that can.
- dijit 7y ago
  Reality doesn't work this way. The only way to have real collaboration on a global level is to take no sides of any kind and only agree with absolute consensus. Anything else is picking a side and alienates part of the world. I'm sorry that the WHO isn't playing into the politics you or I like, in this case it almost certainly would have saved lives, but that's kind of the point. As soon as they "wake up to the reality" of something such as, idk, Crimea being Russian territory? then suddenly they're alienating Ukraine and its allies. It's stupid, and fickle, but the only winning move is not to play.
  - jdminhbg 7y ago
    They clearly took a side, I don’t know how you can look at it any other way. In your counter factual with Russia, of course they should recognize the de facto situation and send aid if something terrible happens there, regardless of how mad that makes Ukraine. It doesn’t really matter whether my politics were assuaged, though, because they pissed off the majority of their funding and had it cut off. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.