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> Every building and storefront had a QR code posted at the entrance for contact tracing, and people took care to scan it and text the central authority before

> Every building and storefront had a QR code posted at the entrance for contact tracing, and people took care to scan it and text the central authority before going inside. Woe unto those who forgot their cell phone! As sensational and exciting as it might feel to write that, it's misleading. If you don't have your cell phone, you just grab a pen and fill out your phone number and the time on one of the cards they have right inside the door. Every place of business that has a QR code to scan also has the paper and pen option. I've filled in quite a few over the past couple of years when going to a convenience store after a workout. Considering it avoided both a mass outbreak and lockdowns, I'd say the system has worked out very well. There was some interesting work on making it maximally privacy-preserving, too!

bloodyplonker22 5y ago
>Considering it avoided both a mass outbreak Have you been following what is going on in Taiwan in terms of covid? There is a mass outbreak building up right now. Oh, and the contact tracing you are talking about -- are they going to start contact tracing the thousands of people who have covid now? How is that going to help?
- AlchemistCamp 5y ago
  > Have you been following what is going on in Taiwan in terms of covid? Yes. It's where I've been from the beginning of the pandemic, all through last year, during the original SARS outbreak in 2002 and most of the years in between. The current wave is more contagious but quite a bit less lethal than the delta outbreak that Taiwan successfully stopped last summer via contact tracing and limited restrictions.
- eloisius 5y ago
  Sounds like you really have an axe to grind all over this thread. I dare venture that you haven't been following the situation here that closely either. I'm in Taipei right now and have lived here for almost the entire pandemic. The "mass outbreak" was 13k new cases today. The cases are ramping up but hospitalizations and deaths are not. Everyone knows that omicron is not serious, and by all indications, the government is cautiously letting it rip this time. Yesterday they ended the QR code program. They've been continuously reducing quarantine for 'close contacts' of confirmed cases. It's down to 3 days at home quarantine, and then 4 days of self health management, during which you aren't supposed to go to the mall or things like that, but can still go to work. They've also reduced the number of contacts that they trace and which criteria qualify as "close contact." For two years while most of the rest of the world was in turmoil, life was almost normal here. I still went to the gym, went to restaurants, worked in an office, positive GDP growth. Things just carried on, and without a massive body count. And now, that's it's basically a cold, the population is mostly vaccinated, and there is no hope of ever maintaining "COVID-zero" the government is slowly easing restrictions without overloading the health system. Taiwan's COVID response should be hailed as genius, yet you still have blowhards that feel like they were right all along.
- unityByFreedom 5y ago
  Now this is sensational. I'm in Taiwan and the number of severe cases is very small since the population is vaccinated. The CDC here has been saying Covid is going to come soon since late last year. They hit their vaccine targets and are reducing restrictions. Contact tracing is trending down. They just announced yesterday you don't need to do the QR code or leave contact info at shops anymore. You're only considered a contact of a case if you live together, and even then there is now home quarantine.
- jameshush 5y ago
  I'm in Taiwan, _and_ currently have COVID (at home quarantining now, feel completely fine). The spike is higher than it's ever been for infections, but hospitalizations and deaths are basically zero. There were two deaths _in the whole country_ today both over 70 years old, vaccinated, with previous complications. Hospital beds are sitting at 30-40% empty. Things are going just fine. Government called up the businesses I'd been to over the last couple of days and got them to take a test and quarantine at home for a couple of days. I'm at home quarantining for 10 days which I would have done anyway. They even sent me a box of snacks, some garbage bags, and extra tests. Honestly I can't think of a better, more reasonable policy, and result than what we're doing right now over here.
unityByFreedom 5y ago
I found the article more optimistic than sensational, > For me, this brief quarantine in Taiwan was a glimpse into an alternate reality where pandemic response was not a shitshow. People knew what they were doing, there was a plan and adequate resources to make it work, and everyone seemed to be living in a shared reality when it came to fighting an infectious disease. Even though I was a foreigner and a potential vector for the pandemic they were trying to keep out of their country, at every step I was treated with kindness and respect. The author can be forgiven for not noticing the clipboards used to record phone numbers. If you scan at the door you can easily overlook them. Plus, even some reporters here still ask "what if they don't have a cellphone". From a summary of a recent CDC/CECC conference [1] > Reporter asks about the elimination of QR code scanning nationwide. What if people dont have cellphones for the social distancing app? Chen replies if someone doesn't have one, then they don't have one (lmao). [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/comments/ucws6c/8923_new_confirmed_cases_of_covid19_8822_local/i6dbyd2/ https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/comments/ucws6c/8923_new_con...
throw_loc_id 5y ago
> Considering it avoided both a mass outbreak and lockdowns, I'd say the system has worked out very well Sorry for the wall of text. It is time to change - probably overdue. I won't comment on future policy, but this article I think missed a lot of perspective. I'm in a vulnerable group. I'd rather have been in Taiwan for the pandemic than anywhere else. The article mentions masks, but it was common for people to wear surgical masks before the pandemic broke out, for example when visiting doctors. It's been that way for the 15 years I lived here. A cultural norm. It isn't seen as oppressive or some kind of anti-freedom measure or most hysterical as a human rights violation. Until May last year, there was basically total freedom in Taiwan with no (internal) restrictions. We watched with dread at what was happening worldwide. After May there were some minor Delta variant outbreaks. Then, Taiwan had scarce access to any vaccines. Effectively blocked from buying Biontech as part of China's vaccine diplomacy and suffering the global vaccine shortage at that time for anyone outside of a relatively small but powerful set of countries. I'm not criticising those places, just saying there was limited access in Taiwan as little as a year ago. Relying e.g. on Japan for vaccine donations which we were incredibly grateful for. Since then they've developed their own highly effective vaccine Medigen and by mixing donations and the vaccines that could be bought, now most of those who want it have been vaccinated. A year has made all the difference to reduce suffering in Taiwan. Below 1000 deaths. No case explosion straining health services. No severe lockdowns experienced by so many places, although restrictions were put in place.

bloodyplonker22 5y ago

>Considering it avoided both a mass outbreak Have you been following what is going on in Taiwan in terms of covid? There is a mass outbreak building up right now. Oh, and the contact tracing you are talking about -- are they going to start contact tracing the thousands of people who have covid now? How is that going to help?

AlchemistCamp 5y ago
> Have you been following what is going on in Taiwan in terms of covid? Yes. It's where I've been from the beginning of the pandemic, all through last year, during the original SARS outbreak in 2002 and most of the years in between. The current wave is more contagious but quite a bit less lethal than the delta outbreak that Taiwan successfully stopped last summer via contact tracing and limited restrictions.
eloisius 5y ago
Sounds like you really have an axe to grind all over this thread. I dare venture that you haven't been following the situation here that closely either. I'm in Taipei right now and have lived here for almost the entire pandemic. The "mass outbreak" was 13k new cases today. The cases are ramping up but hospitalizations and deaths are not. Everyone knows that omicron is not serious, and by all indications, the government is cautiously letting it rip this time. Yesterday they ended the QR code program. They've been continuously reducing quarantine for 'close contacts' of confirmed cases. It's down to 3 days at home quarantine, and then 4 days of self health management, during which you aren't supposed to go to the mall or things like that, but can still go to work. They've also reduced the number of contacts that they trace and which criteria qualify as "close contact." For two years while most of the rest of the world was in turmoil, life was almost normal here. I still went to the gym, went to restaurants, worked in an office, positive GDP growth. Things just carried on, and without a massive body count. And now, that's it's basically a cold, the population is mostly vaccinated, and there is no hope of ever maintaining "COVID-zero" the government is slowly easing restrictions without overloading the health system. Taiwan's COVID response should be hailed as genius, yet you still have blowhards that feel like they were right all along.
unityByFreedom 5y ago
Now this is sensational. I'm in Taiwan and the number of severe cases is very small since the population is vaccinated. The CDC here has been saying Covid is going to come soon since late last year. They hit their vaccine targets and are reducing restrictions. Contact tracing is trending down. They just announced yesterday you don't need to do the QR code or leave contact info at shops anymore. You're only considered a contact of a case if you live together, and even then there is now home quarantine.
jameshush 5y ago
I'm in Taiwan, _and_ currently have COVID (at home quarantining now, feel completely fine). The spike is higher than it's ever been for infections, but hospitalizations and deaths are basically zero. There were two deaths _in the whole country_ today both over 70 years old, vaccinated, with previous complications. Hospital beds are sitting at 30-40% empty. Things are going just fine. Government called up the businesses I'd been to over the last couple of days and got them to take a test and quarantine at home for a couple of days. I'm at home quarantining for 10 days which I would have done anyway. They even sent me a box of snacks, some garbage bags, and extra tests. Honestly I can't think of a better, more reasonable policy, and result than what we're doing right now over here.

unityByFreedom 5y ago

I found the article more optimistic than sensational, > For me, this brief quarantine in Taiwan was a glimpse into an alternate reality where pandemic response was not a shitshow. People knew what they were doing, there was a plan and adequate resources to make it work, and everyone seemed to be living in a shared reality when it came to fighting an infectious disease. Even though I was a foreigner and a potential vector for the pandemic they were trying to keep out of their country, at every step I was treated with kindness and respect. The author can be forgiven for not noticing the clipboards used to record phone numbers. If you scan at the door you can easily overlook them. Plus, even some reporters here still ask "what if they don't have a cellphone". From a summary of a recent CDC/CECC conference [1] > Reporter asks about the elimination of QR code scanning nationwide. What if people dont have cellphones for the social distancing app? Chen replies if someone doesn't have one, then they don't have one (lmao). [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/comments/ucws6c/8923_new_confirmed_cases_of_covid19_8822_local/i6dbyd2/ https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/comments/ucws6c/8923_new_con...

throw_loc_id 5y ago

> Considering it avoided both a mass outbreak and lockdowns, I'd say the system has worked out very well Sorry for the wall of text. It is time to change - probably overdue. I won't comment on future policy, but this article I think missed a lot of perspective. I'm in a vulnerable group. I'd rather have been in Taiwan for the pandemic than anywhere else. The article mentions masks, but it was common for people to wear surgical masks before the pandemic broke out, for example when visiting doctors. It's been that way for the 15 years I lived here. A cultural norm. It isn't seen as oppressive or some kind of anti-freedom measure or most hysterical as a human rights violation. Until May last year, there was basically total freedom in Taiwan with no (internal) restrictions. We watched with dread at what was happening worldwide. After May there were some minor Delta variant outbreaks. Then, Taiwan had scarce access to any vaccines. Effectively blocked from buying Biontech as part of China's vaccine diplomacy and suffering the global vaccine shortage at that time for anyone outside of a relatively small but powerful set of countries. I'm not criticising those places, just saying there was limited access in Taiwan as little as a year ago. Relying e.g. on Japan for vaccine donations which we were incredibly grateful for. Since then they've developed their own highly effective vaccine Medigen and by mixing donations and the vaccines that could be bought, now most of those who want it have been vaccinated. A year has made all the difference to reduce suffering in Taiwan. Below 1000 deaths. No case explosion straining health services. No severe lockdowns experienced by so many places, although restrictions were put in place.