Taiwan deserves to be a part of the WHO, especially as the threat of another flu pandemic looms, former US secretary of health and human services Tommy Thompson said on Thursday in Taipei.
Thompson was health secretary during the SARS outbreak in 2003. Recalling that time, he criticized China for refusing the offers of help from abroad in late 2002.
"I always wonder in the back of my mind, if I had been able to send my epidemiologists into mainland China in November, whether or not we could have prevented SARS from spreading around the world," he said.
When SARS spread to Taiwan, requests by the Department of Health to get information, first from China then from the WHO, were rejected, Thompson said.
"But when they called America, through me, I immediately sent 100 individuals from the Center for Disease Control," he said.
Although Taiwan's bid to become an observer in the WHA has been repeatedly rejected, it was not for the lack of US support, he said.
"The people of the United States have done everything we possibly can to further that cause," he said. "We lost out."
In addition to reiterating US support for Taiwan to become an WHA observer, Thompson said he thought Taiwan deserves full membership in the WHO eventually.
"I think we should support you becoming a full member, but you have to start someplace," he said.
In a speech at Taipei Medical University Hospital on Thursday, Thompson said "medical diplomacy" would be a valuable tool for Taiwan in the long run to generate support for its diplomatic efforts around the world.
Department of Health Minister Hou Sheng-mou (侯盛茂) said Taiwan provides medical aid through a number of agencies, including Taiwan International Health Action, which dispatches medical teams and supplies to medical emergencies around the globe.
Hospital president Hsu Chung-yi (許重義) said medical students have been sent to India, Africa and South and Central America.
"You can change attitudes and opinions if you do right," Thompson said. "That is going to pay you dividends, though it may not get you a [WHA] vote the next year."
"China has got tremendous economic power, but I don't think there is anything more important than medical diplomacy to start changing the minds and hearts of people," he said.
Thompson said that it was in the best interest of other countries, including China, not to leave Taiwan out of worldwide disease prevention efforts.
"There have been 10 flu pandemics in the last 300 years," he said. "It is not a question of if, but when the next one is going to come."
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods