Health Minister Chen: WHO needs Taiwan, just as Taiwan needs WHO
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Dr. Chen Shih-chung, Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare called on the World Health Organization (WHO) and related parties to include Taiwan into the WHO and its meetings, mechanisms and activities in his article published by India’s mainstream English daily “The Hindu” on May 1, 2020.
Minister Chen, while sharing Taiwan’s proactive measures in controlling the COVID-19 spread over the past few months, said the fact that Taiwan is excluded from the WHO is regrettable given Taiwan’s strength in its public health system, the National Health Insurance, rapid testing capacity as well as research and manufacturing of vaccines and drugs against COVID-19.
Minister Chen stressed that if it is indeed WHO’s mission to ensure the highest attainable standard of health for every person, then the WHO needs Taiwan just as Taiwan needs the WHO. He hopes that after this pandemic abates, the WHO will understand diseases know no borders, and that no country should be left behind, lest it become a major gap in global health security.