Politics have already seeped in, even to supposedly non-partisan organizations such as the World Health Organization.

In the past week, the renowned health authority had received massive backlash for being involved in an alleged Chinese cover-up regarding the pandemic, as well as for dismissing Taiwan’s early warnings about the looming threat of the COVID-19 virus.

Taiwan had also fired back, as it had recently released contents of an email which the government had sent to WHO, asking about the then-unknown virus. Based on the email, the Taiwanese government had inquired about reports that “indicate at least seven, atypical, pneumonia cases were reported in WUHAN, CHINA.”

They have also expressed the government’s concern and are seeking any information and insights that would be of value. However, instead of investigating the matter on-hand, WHO had completely ignored Taiwan’s inquiry, and had even denied the country vital information about the COVID-19 virus.

As if that was not enough, the WHO also refused to recognize the country’s sovereignty, referring to the small island nation as a part of China. As a result, the Taiwanese government accused the health organization of downplaying the looming threat of the virus, and even risking millions of lives.

This might be due to the fact that over the years, Communist China had also refused to acknowledge Taiwan’s independence, and had constantly pursued the country to go back under Chinese control.

Taiwan’s fiery response was a reaction to an interview with the WHO assistant director-general, Bruce Alyward. In the said interview, Hong Kong journalist, Yvonne Tong asked Alyward if the health organization will reconsider Taiwan’s membership. However, Alyward simply dodged the issue by saying that he was unable to hear the question and asked Tong to move forward with the interview. When the reporter pressed on, Alyward expertly turned off the call.

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Due to the controversy, WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was asked to resign. However, despite evident proof, Ghebreyesus and the rest of the organization continued to deny Taiwan’s allegations. As a result, even President Donald Trump announced that he plans to hold funds for the WHO for being “China-centric.”

Moreover, even Nikki Haley, the administration’s former ambassador to the United Nations, also agreed with the president’s decision. According to Haley, it is clear that Taiwan had indicated evidence of “human to human transmission.” The problem, according to Haley, was that two weeks after Taiwan’s inquiry, the WHO claimed that the virus could not be transmitted by human contact. “They didn’t decide until the end of the month that maybe they needed to say that this could be a health emergency,” Haley lashed out.

Moreover, an overwhelming 77% of Americans also agreed with the former ambassador that China, not President Trump, was responsible for the outbreak.