[ci5er]

Taiwan is an interesting case. They are not recognized as, really anything, except part of "One China" by the UN. Anyway - WHO wouldn't talk to them, even when they asked nicely.

But they, like HK (and Vietnam, and SG and I don't know who else) are part of the "China is asshoe" club (i.e. the TW believe that the Chinese government will always lie and obfuscate, true or not), and had pretty direct experience with SARS and the other corona virus (not MERS, but my brain isn't working). In any case - they had protocols in place start mandating masks - pretty much day 1. They also paid for a factory expansion of the largest vendors, pretty much day 1, and pre-paid for a pretty large order.

I heard a rumor that the Vietnamese actually hacked a Chinese "mainframe" and stole materials that allowed them to prepare. I don't know if this is true, and it is not related to Taiwan's already-in-place response plan.

[philliphaydon]

Richard Dawkins recently said that HK is doing well because it followed the recommendations of the WHO.

Which is literally not the case. They wore masks, and protested to get borders closed to non-citizens asap. If the citizens had not taken things into their own hands I fear they wouldn't be in such a good position as they are now.

The WHO needs to be dismantled. china has far too much influential power in the WHO. There should be 0 politics within the WHO, no pandering to the ccp. They should exist to help everyone in the world during an outbreak like this.

[ci5er]

I more-or-less don't disagree, except I do. I think the entire UN has lost its way: Look at the membership of the Human Rights Council. What a joke.

It barely worked in the first place, and is all sorts of corrupted now; I believe they should burn it to the ground.

But! Opinions vary! :-) And I am often wrong in matters outside my particular domains of experience.