Both President Donald Trump and Time Magazine recently ignored discussion of the "smoking gun" document definitively establishing that the World Health Organization lied to the world in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic about whether the virus was showing human-to-human transmission.  Ignoring this document allows the WHO and its supporters to continue to obfuscate the issue and argue that the WHO acted properly and should not be punished for its response to the virus.  At stake are millions of American taxpayer dollars, countless lives that could be lost from future lying by the WHO, and the political survival of government officials like President Trump who are trying to hold the WHO accountable and prevent such conduct in the future.  

The Communist Party of China (CPC)'s lie at the beginning of the pandemic that the coronavirus was not showing human-to-human transmission is the subject of a May 19, 2020 Time magazine article entitled "Taiwan Says It Tried to Warn the World about Coronavirus.  Here's What It Really Knew and When," written by Louise Watt.  The CPC's lie also is the subject of President Trump's May 18, 2020 letter to the WHO threatening to have the United States withdraw from the WHO.

The Time article discusses the earliest efforts of the Republic of China (ROC), also known as Taiwan, to discover the truth about the nature of the coronavirus that the CPC unleashed on humanity from Wuhan, China.  The article focuses on the WHO's role in alerting the world to the virus in January of this year.  The article offers statements criticizing the WHO and statements defending the WHO.  Many who read the article will conclude that it is unclear whether the WHO did anything wrong.

The article omits discussion of a "smoking gun" document that was discussed at AT on April 20, 2020 in a post by this author entitled "WaPo comes to the defense of WHO."  The document is a January 13, 2020 WHO news release that states: "To date, there has been no suggestion of human to human transmission of this new coronavirus."  The key word is "suggestion."

The WHO made this statement despite the existence of another document that proves that there was such a "suggestion" before January 13, 2020.  This other document is the December 31, 2019 email that the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control sent to the WHO, and which was released to the public on April 11, 2020 by the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare.  The email states:

News resources today indicate that at least seven atypical pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, CHINA.  Their health authorities replied to the media that the cases were believed not SARS; however the samples are still under examination and cases have been isolated for treatment.

I would greatly appreciate it if you have relevant information to share with us.

Thank you very much in advance for your attention to this matter.

Best Regards,

This email is a central part of Time's article.  Yet Time fails to evaluate its significance in light of the January 13, 2020 WHO news release that Time completely ignores.

Taiwan's email states that the seven "cases have been isolated for treatment."  Isolation of the seven cases constitutes at least a "suggestion" of human-to-human transmission.  This is the belief of Taiwanese health minister Chen Shih-chung, who held a news conference on April 11, 2020 announcing release of the email.  On April 14, 2020, Henry Holloway of The Sun wrote "ALARM BELL Taiwan's coronavirus December warning to WHO about person-to-person spreading went unheeded bombshell email reveals," reporting about the news conference:

The email points out reports of patients being "isolated".

Taiwanese health minister Chen Shih-chung argued this obviously refers to the risk of transmission at a press conference on Saturday in Taipei.

He said: "If being treated in isolation is not a warning, then what is?"

The WHO's false denial on January 13, 2020 that there was any "suggestion" of human-to-human transmission is a "smoking gun" that leaves the WHO no wiggle room.  The Time article discusses the WHO tweet of January 14, 2020, which states:

Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #ChinaFlag of China.

This tweet is always cited as the primary piece of evidence against the WHO's response to the virus.  Although it is damning because it accepts the CPC's pronouncements without any challenge, implicitly endorsing the veracity of those pronouncements, it leaves the WHO wiggle room to argue and obfuscate, as is evident in Time's article.

The WHO has no wiggle room regarding its false January 13, 2020 news release.  The "suggestion" of human-to-human transmission existed at that time because of Taiwan's December 31, 2019 email to the WHO.  The WHO deceived the world about human-to-human transmission.  The media need to focus on the WHO's January 13, 2020 news release.

This has become even more important in light of President Trump's May 18, 2020 letter to the WHO detailing its many failings regarding the virus, and stating that "if the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization."  Sadly, even President Trump's letter fails to mention the WHO's January 13, 2020 news release and its false denial of any "suggestion" of human-to-human transmission.

Derived from China, the word "kowtow" has come to mean more than a physical bowing.  It means abject submission or groveling.  The WHO did more than kowtow.  The WHO aided and abetted the CPC in committing what is arguably one of the greatest single acts of mass murder, infliction of physical and emotional suffering, and economic destruction ever unleashed.

If we can't accurately set forth the history of this event in its first few months, how will we do so in the years to come?  Time magazine needs to be accurate because that is its job in writing the first draft of history.  President Trump needs to be accurate because he needs the public's support to hold the WHO accountable for its lies and to try to prevent such conduct in the future.   

Allan J. Favish is an attorney in Los Angeles.  His website is allanfavish.com.  James Fernald and Mr. Favish have co-authored a book about what might happen if the government ran Disneyland, entitled "Fireworks! If the Government Ran the Fairest Kingdom of Them All (A Very Unauthorized Fantasy).