'The rest of the world can learn an important lesson both from Taiwan’s wariness and its response.''But there is another country, far closer to China, whose economy is even more closely intertwined with the Communist giant’s. From that country’s capital, you can fly direct to every major Chinese city, including Wuhan. Until recently, thousands did every day.
Yet, despite this huge cross-border traffic with neighboring China, the 25 million people of this island nation are virtually free of the Wuhan Flu.
The country in question is Taiwan, which as of March 16 is reporting only 67 cases and one death. Most of those earlier infected have since recovered, and there have been few new cases. In other words, the deadly invader has been stopped in its tracks.
How is that even possible?
One reason is that the democratically elected government of Taiwan reacted to the widening epidemic in real time.
China first admitted to the World Health Organization that it had “several” cases of a new pneumonia on December 31. The very same day, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control began monitoring passengers arriving from Wuhan.
With China withholding information about the nature of the new pneumonia, Taiwan erred on the side of caution, screening passengers for no fewer than 36 known viruses.
When China shocked the world by quarantining one of its major cities, Taiwan reacted immediately, banning flights from Wuhan on January 26. It was the first country in the world to do so.
As the disease reached epidemic proportions in China and began to spread around the world, Taiwan put in place no fewer than 124 safety protocols for the virus.
To prevent community spreading, the government distributed 6.5 million masks to primary and secondary schools, along with 84,000 liters of hand sanitizer and 25,000 forehead thermometers. It required office buildings and residential complexes to screen entrants for signs of fever, and to put hand sanitizers next to elevators.
It took these actions even though it was not allowed — because of China’s opposition — to attend the World Health Organization’s emergency meetings on the Chinese Coronavirus. (This actually may have been a good thing, since the WHO has been covering up for China from the get-go.)
As everyone now knows, speed is everything when it comes to controlling epidemics. Even a week’s dalliance can lead to uncontained community spreading of the virus. A month’s delay can be fatal to many.
Taiwan is today largely free of the Chinese coronavirus not only because it did everything right, but because it did everything early. Why?
Taiwan’s leaders, led by President Tsai Ing-wen, know from long experience that the Beijing regime is run by pathological liars who will always put their own political survival ahead of all other considerations, including the lives of those they rule. They saw in the Wuhan Virus a replay of the SARS epidemic of 2003, which China’s leaders lied about as well until the mounting death toll made it impossible to do so.
That experience caused the island nation to create strategic stockpiles of items that would be useful when — not if — a future epidemic emerged from China. And when it did, they did not hesitate. They acted.
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The rest of the world can learn an important lesson both from Taiwan’s wariness and its response.
- The world has a lot to learn from Taiwan’s hugely successful response to Chinese coronavirus, March 19, 2020
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