Taiwan Doctor Who Ridiculed Malaysia's COVID-19 Situation Apologises In Facebook Comments
The doctor did not even dedicate a Facebook post to offer his apology.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 08 Apr 2020, 01:32 PM
The Taiwanese doctor who ridiculed Malaysia for its methods in handling the COVID-19 pandemic during a televised show has apologised in a Facebook comments section yesterday, 7 April
Dr Lee Bing-ying went on a TVBS show - which was published online last weekend - to say that Malaysia is embarrassing itself for failing to control the coronavirus pandemic despite having hot weather in the country.
The chairman of the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan claimed Malaysians do not wear face masks and described us as "American-England kind" of people.
In his view, he also added that starvation will kill more Malaysians than the virus itself because of the nationwide partial lockdown.
At the time of writing, the video of the TV show segment has since been removed from TVBS' Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Following Dr Lee's glaringly inaccurate take of Malaysia's COVID-19 situation, many Malaysians flooded Dr Lee's Facebook profile to criticise his lack of professionalism
In a public Facebook post published on Monday, 6 April, where Dr Lee shared an article about scientists debunking COVID-19 conspiracy theories, over a dozen of netizens were seen leaving mean comments, demanding Dr Lee to explain his slanders against Malaysia.
"Erroneous reporting about the pandemic situation in Malaysia. Don't mislead people without knowing the truth. Are you trying to create chaos?" said one person.
While another added, "As a doctor, your report about Malaysia is inaccurate and nonsensical. Please don't make comments if you don't know the truth. You are embarrassing yourself and your country."
Seeing a surge of hate comments on his Facebook profile, Dr Lee commented on the post to offer his apology to Malaysians
The former doctor of National Taiwan University Hospital said the comments he made on the show were targeted at people who do not wear face masks, not calling out any country.
"I understand that the Chinese in Malaysia have the habit of wearing face masks and that the pandemic situation in Malaysia is much better controlled than European and American countries, where the people there do not believe in face masks," Dr Lee wrote.
"I have no recollection of mentioning Malaysia nor do I think that Malaysia has any problem in the pandemic prevention efforts. Sorry for the misunderstanding, I am sorry."
One netizen was baffled to hear that Dr Lee has "no recollection of mentioning Malaysia" during the show and sarcastically said that Dr Lee must be "suffering from dementia or encephalitis".
According to the video SAYS sighted, the whole segment started with the host talking about Malaysia while referring to media reports printed on display cards. Dr Lee was also repeatedly heard referring to Malaysians or the Malaysian government while making his points.
In response, the doctor said that if he had mentioned it, his comments are completely wrong
Dr Lee said he only wanted to mention other countries - "Sorry!"
"I have no plans to go on that show in the near future. It was an honest slip of the tongue. In my head, I wanted to highlight places that persuade people not to wear face masks, not the countries. Please believe me," he said.
Dr Lee's apology to Malaysia was only made in the comments section, not a dedicated status update like Taiwan TV current affairs commentator Li Zheng Hao had done following the latter's inaccurate reporting about Malaysia's COVID-19 situation.
Dr Lee Bing-ying also admitted that there is no empirical evidence that shows that hot weather will affect the spread of COVID-19 because it is a completely new virus.
Image via 李秉穎/Facebook