3 ms·

Bluntly, Taiwan lied as part of a coordinated propaganda campaign by US and Taiwan [1] [2]. This was around the time western media articles started spinning up

Bluntly, Taiwan lied as part of a coordinated propaganda campaign by US and Taiwan [1] [2]. This was around the time western media articles started spinning up revisionist Taiwan WHO stories. Nevermind, it's literally impossible for Taiwan to know epidemiological characteristics of covid19 on Dec31 when their first imported case was on Jan21. It's propaganda, not even good one since it assumes time travel. Taiwan's email is basically what Chinese CDC reported to publicly [3] and to WHO [4] verbatim, note date and content - SARs like viral pneumonia treated in isolation which is standard practice. They provided zero addition information and tried to swing it as new information retroactively to manipulate public opinion. Taiwan's own CDC deputy director of disease control quoted in early January that H2H could not be determined until new cases are confirmed after Jan14 [5]. [1] https://apnews.com/a0b22f45f0cbc8e83e7d496dd2e09556 https://apnews.com/a0b22f45f0cbc8e83e7d496dd2e09556 [2] https://www.state.gov/virtual-forum-on-expanding-taiwans-participation-on-the-global-stage/ https://www.state.gov/virtual-forum-on-expanding-taiwans-par... [3] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-pneumonia/chinese-officials-investigate-cause-of-pneumonia-outbreak-in-wuhan-idUSKBN1YZ0GP https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-pneumonia/ch... [4] https://www.who.int/csr/don/05-january-2020-pneumonia-of-unkown-cause-china/en/ https://www.who.int/csr/don/05-january-2020-pneumonia-of-unk... [5] https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202001060113.aspx https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/202001060113.aspx

SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
But I feel like there's an equivocation on "determined" here. Taiwan was screening passengers from Wuhan from the beginning of January; even if they didn't know human to human transmission occurred, they clearly thought it was a good thing to presume.
- dirtyid 7y ago
  I think any sensible epidemiology response would presume H2H to be possible if the unknown viral pneumonia is compared to SARS. The fact is Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore response are all inline with WHO recommendations to screen, test, trace and isolate on Jan23. Early Jan screening, pre testkit, was basically temperature checks that is insufficient given asymptomatic transmission. Most East Asian countries did this as well, but in retrospect it was essentially security theater. The only deviation in response was early travel bans to China (initially only to Hubei) but this was also AFTER Hubei lockdown which was a pretty clear broadcast that the situation was serious. I would argue also unnecessary since imported cases statistics from these countries (and others) demonstrate covid19 never spread much in China. For example, Taiwan repatriation ~1000 out of Wuhan with 1 positive test. At the end of the day, countries that took prompt actions based off WHO recommendations did well and without massive civic disruptions. The countries that waited too long suffered.

SpicyLemonZest 7y ago

But I feel like there's an equivocation on "determined" here. Taiwan was screening passengers from Wuhan from the beginning of January; even if they didn't know human to human transmission occurred, they clearly thought it was a good thing to presume.

dirtyid 7y ago
I think any sensible epidemiology response would presume H2H to be possible if the unknown viral pneumonia is compared to SARS. The fact is Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore response are all inline with WHO recommendations to screen, test, trace and isolate on Jan23. Early Jan screening, pre testkit, was basically temperature checks that is insufficient given asymptomatic transmission. Most East Asian countries did this as well, but in retrospect it was essentially security theater. The only deviation in response was early travel bans to China (initially only to Hubei) but this was also AFTER Hubei lockdown which was a pretty clear broadcast that the situation was serious. I would argue also unnecessary since imported cases statistics from these countries (and others) demonstrate covid19 never spread much in China. For example, Taiwan repatriation ~1000 out of Wuhan with 1 positive test. At the end of the day, countries that took prompt actions based off WHO recommendations did well and without massive civic disruptions. The countries that waited too long suffered.