[ExI] What's up with the WHO?

[Stuart LaForge]

Is it my imagination or is the WHO (yes that WHO) being very unhelpful  
in this outbreak?

It seems strange that an organization called the World Health  
Organization would:

1. Wait until COVID-19 reached American soil before calling it a  
pandemic despite over half of the world's countries being affected at  
the time.
2. Recommend that people in western countries other than medical  
professionals not wear masks despite heavy mask use in Asia by  
non-doctors.
3. Report an increase in the Case Fatality Rate from the 2.3% reported  
by China to an outrageous 3.4% right when the virus started infecting  
western nations despite data suggesting it is less than 1%.

And then of course there is all the awkwardness over Taiwan. Has the  
WHO become a proxy of the Chinese government?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-taiwan-idUSKBN21B160

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TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan accused the World Heath Organization of  
ignoring its questions at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, part  
of what it has long described as a pattern that puts it at risk  
because of Chinese pressure to exclude it from international bodies.

Taiwan is barred from membership in the WHO under pressure from China,  
which views it as a province rather than a state. It responded early  
to the coronavirus outbreak in China, and has had notable success in  
limiting contagion so far, with just two deaths and 215 cases.

Taiwan’s government has said that keeping it out of the WHO during the  
outbreak amounts to playing politics with Taiwanese lives, and it has  
been denied access to first-hand information. Both the WHO and China  
say Taiwan has been provided with the help it needs.

Speaking to reporters in Taipei, the island’s Centres for Disease  
Control chief Chou Jih-haw said that it written to the WHO and China  
as early as Dec. 31, asking for information about the newly uncovered  
virus outbreak in China’s Wuhan city, including whether there was  
human-to-human transmission.

“We asked them whether there’s a possibility of human-to-human  
transmission. We indeed asked them and reminded them of the matter,”  
Chou said. He said the WHO confirmed it had received the letter but  
did not respond to it.

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Stuart LaForge