Political and health activists yesterday urged the government to adopt new strategies for Taiwan's entry into the World Health Organization (WHO) saying that the health of the nation's 23 million people was at stake.
According to former head of the Department of Health, Tu Hsing-che (
"The WHO without Taiwan is not healthy, and it may even be dangerous," Tu said.
Chen Long-chi (
"As an observer, Taiwan would not receive the full benefits in terms of aid received and the right to express ourselves in full-scale meetings," Chen said.
Shu I-ren (蘇益仁), head of the clinical research team at the National Health Research Institute, said that Taiwan could offer its medical expertise to help deal with a potential bird flu pandemic.
Chiu Ya-wen (邱亞文), an assistant research fellow at the National Health Research Institute's Center for Health Policy Research and Development, added that the nation was positioned between Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, where the disease is most prevalent, making Taiwan's involvement in discussions critical.
"Most countries are adopting the attitude of prevention by keeping bird flu out of the country, making it critical for them to know the bird flu status of other countries. With Vietnam having the highest number of human cases of bird flu and Taiwan's heavy investment in Vietnam's industrial trade, knowledge of Taiwan's bird flu status is crucial," she said.
According to Chiu, there are 100,000 Vietnamese laborers and brides in Taiwan while there are 30,000 Taiwanese businessmen in Vietnam.
Chiu said that a key strategy was to train personnel to understand how organizations work at a global level.
She suggested that there should be a public relations department set up to negotiate relations between the WHO and Taiwan rather than having Taiwan try to "argue" its way in.
Tu said that despite political barriers preventing Taiwan's entry into the WHO, China may one day soften its stance, and that it was just a matter of "timing, geography, and ability."
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the