[jlmorton]

The WHO certainly never claimed that SARS-CoV-2 does not spread between people. They said human-to-human transmission had not been confirmed.

The very first signs of human-to-human transmission in the epidemic were on Jan 14th, as some family members of the initially-identified cluster began to fall ill. At this time, there were about ~50 identified cases, and zero deaths.

On January 20th, one single incubation period later, as healthcare workers began falling ill, both China and the WHO confirmed human-to-human transmission.

There are large numbers of examples of respiratory illnesses that do not easily transmit between humans. Most commonly, there are frequently outbreaks of H1N1 influenza from farms, with animals as the primary vector. Among coronaviruses, MERS transmits very poorly between people.

Would you have preferred the WHO loudly proclaim the virus easily transmits between people when there was no evidence that it did? That would be absurd.

Please stop spreading this misinformation.

[Will_Do]

What a strange comment.

Taiwan informed the WHO in December that person to person transmission was likely taking place[0]. The only sense in which it hadn’t been confirmed is in a tautological sense the WHO hadn’t confirmed it. Doctors in Wuhan were getting infected and Taiwan had proof of that.

[0] https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/2a70a02a-644...

[jlmorton]

Talk about a strange comment. Taiwan's email did not inform the WHO of anything at all. In fact, it is best described as nothing more than a wild-ass guess.

China notified the WHO on December 31st of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause, and noted that the patients had been isolated.

Taiwan's health minister then emailed the WHO, suggesting that the unknown illness might well be SARS, and made note of China's acknowledgement that the patients had been put in isolation.

Taiwan had zero first hand knowledge of the the virus, and zero information on the virus beyond what China had provided to the WHO and what had been reported in social media.

Taiwan's health minister's email to the WHO was literally based on nothing more than China's own statements to the WHO, and social media rumors. That is it in its entirety.

Again, like I suggested to the original commenter, please stop spreading misinformation.

[cc81]

Taiwan did not mention in their email that person to person transmission was taking place. They said that WHO should do their own investigation.

Taiwan had no proof, they just did not trust China.

[rumanator]

> The very first signs of human-to-human transmission in the epidemic were on Jan 14th, as some family members of the initially-identified cluster began to fall ill.

If you're referring to the case covered by the article published in The Lancet[1], those patients were admitted to hospital between Jan 10 and Jan 15.

Yet, prior to that date there were already reports the virus spread between humans.

[1] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...