A number of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies have sent separate proposals to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom asking that the nation be invited to attend this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Taiwan has yet to receive an invitation to the 71st WHA, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from May 21 to May 26, and it has officially asked its diplomatic allies to petition the international organization on its behalf, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry would not disclose which allies were approached, but said that several countries with which Taiwan has diplomatic ties have written to propose “inviting Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer.”
Photo: Chien Jung-fong
Taiwan would continue to seek an invitation until the start of the assembly, even though the chance of obtaining one appears even slimmer than last year, a source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Taiwan attended the WHA for the last time in 2016 when, following the election of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), China stepped up pressure on international organizations to bar Taiwan from such events.
The statement called on the WHO to defend the professionalism of the field of medicine, saying the organization should not be swayed by some countries’ political objectives.
At an event marking World Health Day, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that Taiwan’s medical capabilities mean it has much to contribute to the WHO.
The theme of this year’s World Health Day was universal health coverage and Taiwan is perfectly positioned to share insights about its healthcare system, which is rated one of the best in the world, Chen said.
Regardless of whether Taiwan receives an invitation to attend the WHA, Chen is to lead a delegation to Geneva and hold bilateral talks with countries attending the assembly, as he did last year.
Many countries have already agreed to hold discussions with Taiwan outside the WHA venue, sources said.
The Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan on Thursday said that the EU, US and UK, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and Japan are all planning to speak up in favor of Taiwan being invited to attend this year’s WHA.
However, none of the countries and organizations have publicly expressed their intention to do so.
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