Coronavirus - Taiwan 2021

Firewall setup here packages in and out deny!

2 Likes

No. After February 5th or so I think we will know how much community spread. We are in the lull now. The first case presented within the 2 to 3 day window. The next cases will be 10 to 14 days. If there is a big spike this weekend we are in for a tough time.

I don’t think we will be safe until the end of February.

1 Like

He’s already here. Not gonna be rude. Maybe you’d like to start a STFO thread for those entertaining the idea of coming.

Qué pasó, qué pasó, vamos ahí?!

I have always been polite. However, I’m happy being the bad guy.

1 Like

Oh. Another one. Go be the welcome wagon

I don’t feel sorry.one bit. Taoyuan has to take in these people as they get detected at the airport .

Edit - I may sound harsh and I’m not wishing anybody ill health , but …This is where we are now.

I’d also give it a couple of weeks (at least…) to see. I’m over on the east coast at the moment, a bit surprised by the number of people I see coughing and sneezing (obviously just normal coughing and sneezing, one hopes) and not wearing masks.

I actually saw a guy cough then spit on the floor of a train carriage in Hualien yesterday - haven’t seen that since I lived in China.

A little bit of the reality of how impossible it would be to contain a small number of unidentified cases actually hit me a couple of times, like when the crowd of people from Taipei/Hualien were passing through the train station underpass in Taitung. :grimacing:

4 Likes

Tons of coughing and sneezing in and around the Zhongshan MRT and Xinyi Shopping District areas today. N95 time.

2 Likes

Quoting minister Chen: no one wants to get sick.

We had one hospital cluster before, last year, remember case 36? Toll was 10 sick people, I think.

Now we have 15 and are holding our collective breaths.

We lost 37 people to SARS. We have lost 7 to COVID. Yes, we lose more in a fire or a bad traffic accident. But still it scares us, touches us at another level.

I feel like they didn’t hedge their bets properly and were possibly lobbied by local pharma companies .
Taiwan is a very rich country it should have just thrown money at the problem like Israel. And it would have been cost effective too.

1 Like

Between the Gold Card recipients who don’t even know the quarantine requirements and the Gold Card recipients who don’t understand they’re signing up to pay taxes in Taiwan, I have to wonder whether Taiwan has set the bar high enough with its Gold Card requirements.

4 Likes

Well, Taiwan has little to none word with the WHO, which BTW, just pulled the plug on Mexico’s vaccination campaign because well, they should not hog the vaccines and leave some for others.

There is just so far money can get you. And the other parties will just don’t: you do not have such a pressing need, your situation is not that bad.

I think it’s not the right time to be running that scheme personally. But it’s open for debate.

Worked for Israel. They paid top dollar to the biotech companies, guaranteed early on. They saw it is a critical security threat I guess.
Interestingly it was an Israeli company which developed the first coronavirus vaccine. For avian coronavirus. That’s why I always had confidence that vaccines were coming.

1 Like

We unfortunately are not on the same level of standing internationally to negotiate such deals.

Yes, we may have the money. But it is still Taiwan, the forgotten, or rather, the cursed. That is why they are now negotiating with chips.

I will wait for MIT non RNA.

I’m with you.

My opinion is that unless Taiwan is prepared to do rapid response contact tracing and large-scale testing in response to domestic cases, set up government-run quarantine facilities for outbreaks, and keep frontliners treating Covid patients segregated from non-Covid patients and medical staff (and the public for 14 days following each shift), it should keep the border closed tighter than a nun’s you know what.

2 Likes

Yep not worth it right now. US has banned entry from many countries including UK and Ireland.
Taiwan government needs to tighten up.

1 Like

Regarding vaccines, I’m in no hurry personally and I don’t think Taiwan policy-makers should be either. Instead of rushing in, let’s learn from other countries’ outcomes and invest at the right time. Provided we can overcome the recent cluster and get back to normal pre-taoyuan conditions, this strategy plays to our strengths (given the lack of epidemic here, and our likely ability to rollout a vaccine at a rapid rate).

1 Like

I’ve never been rude. I haven’t been welcoming. I don’t know what else to say to you.