The Seattle Times
Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Editorial
SARS without politics

Taiwan, which has lately emerged on the front line against SARS, has been wrongly undermined in that effort by China.

Viruses know no politics, but the humans who fight them do. When Taiwan asked for help from the World Health Organization in Geneva, the WHO deferred to Beijing. That was because the WHO is part of the United Nations, which does not include Taiwan. The result was that for several weeks, Taiwan, which wanted help, did not get any help because Beijing said SARS was under control.

It was not under control. Now China reports that it has had 4,884 SARS cases and 235 deaths. Taiwan has 172 cases and 18 deaths.

Beijing officials have finally come awake. Last week, the WHO put out a travel advisory for Taipei, Taiwan Province, China, and sent two WHO physicians.

The name is not so important. Call Taiwan a country, a province, a territory or an island — but defend the health interests of the 23 million people there. That ought to be the concern of anything called the World Health Organization. In a contagious epidemic, the health interests of all people are related. The only way to stamp out SARS, if it is still possible, is to fight it everywhere.

Taiwan should be let into the WHO. Everyone else is in it — Iraq, North Korea, everyone. And that is as it should be.