Taiwan should be a member of WHO — coronavirus doesn't care about human politics If we’re going to successfully fight a pandemic, Taiwan has to be a part of the solution and it shouldn’t matter whether that gets China miffed.

Mia Ping-Chieh Chen | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Is the U.S. prepared for a coronavirus pandemic? A previous version of this video incorrectly stated how many people the 1918 Spanish influenza killed.

At a time when markets are rattled and health experts are worried about a global pandemic potentially sparking a worldwide recession, membership in the World Health Organization is a small measure of security. Nearly every country is a member of WHO, including small island nations such as Tuvalu and Tonga. Several other non-United Nations members have been granted observer status such as Palestine, the Holy See and Order of Malta.

As members of the WHO in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, each tiny nation is eligible to exchange ideas and research on public health and hygiene, access the latest information from on the ground experts on disease outbreaks, and share the latest development on new vaccines and therapeutics.

That matters a lot when a new disease like COVID-19 emerges as happened last December. The novel coronavirus has brought more than 109,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,600 deaths around the world, including new cases all over the United States.

An island left alone

But one small island nation crucially is not a part of the WHO — Taiwan with 23 million residents, is the only country with confirmed coronavirus cases that is denied participation in global health conversations.

It’s ineligible for the same protection as other WHO members and it’s an obvious loophole in our global health response against coronavirus. And Taiwan is at coronavirus ground zero, a mere 110 miles off the coast of hard-hit China and a short plane ride south of South Korea and Japan, the two Asian nations with the most COVID-19 cases after China.

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Taiwan isn’t a member of the WHO or even an observer because China objects that the island is a rogue province that must be brought to heel, threatening military force if necessary. Since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, WHO has barred Taiwan from the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s annual policy meeting, because Beijing despises her views on Taiwan’s independence.

Under such circumstances, Taiwan gets world health information from diplomatic allies in the WHO and from members of private medical associations that are allowed to observe the assemblies. The lack of timely and comprehensive information is a disadvantage in global epidemic prevention. In February, Taiwanese experts were only allowed to participate remotely in a WHO forum.

We are in the same fight

The same situation happened in 2003 when Taiwan was left isolated in fighting against severe acute respiratory syndrome. Taiwan reported the first SARS case in mid-March but had to wait till May for the visit of two WHO experts. Researchers at the time had struggled to obtain diagnostic materials and scientists were told to ask the antagonistic Chinese government for data on the disease.

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If we’re going to successfully fight a pandemic, Taiwan has to be a part of the solution and it shouldn’t matter whether that gets China miffed. The world should put people’s health first.

The United States has long protected the island nation with judicious arms sales to keep the Chinese at bay. Now may be the time for WHO membership to keep coronavirus away, too. Pandemics don’t care about human politics.

Mia Ping-Chieh Chen, a Boston University journalism student, is a USA TODAY opinion section intern from Taiwan. Follow her on Twitter: @miapcchen