4 ms·

Singapore has been competent, but Taiwan's response has been more impressive. It's very close to the hot zone, millions of people travel to and from mainland C

Singapore has been competent, but Taiwan's response has been more impressive. It's very close to the hot zone, millions of people travel to and from mainland China every year, it has roughly the population of Australia living on 10% of the land Japan has, the WHO refuses any cooperation, and yet there have been under 50 cases and no local transmission. Not only that, but as a democratic state, Taiwan's control measures have been remarkably measured. I'd credit two factors: 1) Imposing travel limits three weeks before China even admitted there was an outbreak. After SARS, the TW government had a plan for this epidemic and a healthy skepticism for both official news and the WHO. 2) Taiwan has a relatively high trust society. People generally trust the local CDC and make a genuine effort to take preventative measures, even those primarily for the safety of others. A phone alert is generally all that's needed as a quarantine reminder for those exposed.

dmix 7y ago
> TW government had a plan for this epidemic and a healthy skepticism for both official news and the WHO. Which is notable that the US CDC seems to be following WHO closer than anyone, at least early on...
woutr_be 7y ago
> After SARS, the TW government had a plan for this epidemic and a healthy skepticism for both official news and the WHO. That's not surprising, since the WHO doesn't recognise Taiwan as an independent country and refuses to help them, I'm glad they were able to take their own successful measurements.
billfruit 7y ago
China reported Covid19 to WHO on 31 Dec 2019, do you say that travel curbs were put in Taiwan in early December?
- kijin 7y ago
  I think the parent is referring to when China officially, publicly admitted the problem, which was three weeks after it notified the WHO. Taiwan implemented more stringent inspection requirements for people arriving from the Wuhan area as soon as China notified WHO, on 31 Dec 2019.
- robocat 7y ago
  Taiwan started acting on 31st Dec. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689 Taiwan has had a spectacular response to the virus - that is the gold standard that Italy (or Korea) should be compared against.
  - toyg 7y ago
    They were hit badly by SARS and learnt a lot of valuable lessons. This is our European SARS moment, hopefully.
jotm 7y ago
Meanwhile, around here people break advised self quarantine because "fork off, I'm fine". No trust in government and a general attitude of "it's just a flu, and I got things to do"...
- martinpw 7y ago
  Where is "around here"?
  - jotm 7y ago
    Romania, which is also severely underprepared for a real outbreak. At least they're locking down borders and checking people, there's a lot of them going to/from work around the EU.
counternrrative 7y ago
You've just been sort-of lucky, so far, but the reckonings are coming. The safest country will be China because their measures are more effective and they have been really tested by the situation. See how TW will respond if they get an actual outbreak. They will: - cover it up - blame China - blame each other - and crucially not be able to contain it. That's the politics of that place, which seems to need to prioritize self-preservation, appearances and emotionality over results, like all democratic governments. Unlike China. This is so, which despite claiming to "live there" you clearly do not understand. Whatever. Know-it-alls like you are so often wrong, faker dude.

dmix 7y ago

> TW government had a plan for this epidemic and a healthy skepticism for both official news and the WHO. Which is notable that the US CDC seems to be following WHO closer than anyone, at least early on...

woutr_be 7y ago

> After SARS, the TW government had a plan for this epidemic and a healthy skepticism for both official news and the WHO. That's not surprising, since the WHO doesn't recognise Taiwan as an independent country and refuses to help them, I'm glad they were able to take their own successful measurements.

billfruit 7y ago

China reported Covid19 to WHO on 31 Dec 2019, do you say that travel curbs were put in Taiwan in early December?

kijin 7y ago
I think the parent is referring to when China officially, publicly admitted the problem, which was three weeks after it notified the WHO. Taiwan implemented more stringent inspection requirements for people arriving from the Wuhan area as soon as China notified WHO, on 31 Dec 2019.
robocat 7y ago
Taiwan started acting on 31st Dec. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689 Taiwan has had a spectacular response to the virus - that is the gold standard that Italy (or Korea) should be compared against.
- toyg 7y ago
  They were hit badly by SARS and learnt a lot of valuable lessons. This is our European SARS moment, hopefully.

jotm 7y ago

Meanwhile, around here people break advised self quarantine because "fork off, I'm fine". No trust in government and a general attitude of "it's just a flu, and I got things to do"...

martinpw 7y ago
Where is "around here"?
- jotm 7y ago
  Romania, which is also severely underprepared for a real outbreak. At least they're locking down borders and checking people, there's a lot of them going to/from work around the EU.

counternrrative 7y ago

You've just been sort-of lucky, so far, but the reckonings are coming. The safest country will be China because their measures are more effective and they have been really tested by the situation. See how TW will respond if they get an actual outbreak. They will: - cover it up - blame China - blame each other - and crucially not be able to contain it. That's the politics of that place, which seems to need to prioritize self-preservation, appearances and emotionality over results, like all democratic governments. Unlike China. This is so, which despite claiming to "live there" you clearly do not understand. Whatever. Know-it-alls like you are so often wrong, faker dude.