We don’t quite know the long term impact of these infections.
Thankfully a study I saw (I think it was from Israel) indicated that folks who were double dosed with BNT had negligible long COVID symptoms. We’ll see about the rest. In the meantime, I won’t be calling this “the flu” quite yet.
Guy
My dad has a cold at moment (he tested for covid, came negative) what hit him worse than Omicron did.
For most people its a flu or less, but serious cases are worse than flu. But serious cases seem to largely hit the unvaxxed. There are some exceptions. But.for triple vaxxed, its a flu.
My cousin had breast cancer 3 years ago and rang the bell, no relapse. Triple vaccinated, got Omicron which is running rampant. Isolated, so far so good. We also fear for her mother, as my aunt is 90 years old, can’t take care of herself, so others have to come in and out her house to feed her, take care of her, which is a double edged sword as they could bring the bug in.
I really wish the hospital option was as available as in Taiwan.
If I got the bug here in Taiwan, even asymptomatic, I’d be sent to the hospital. My cats would not like it but due to my health issues even asymptomatic I would not gamble on it.
I understand there is a theory that the flu was in fact controlled by covid while covid was spreading, due to viral interference.
Now flu is back, though the “health measures” instigated (and largely ineffective) against covid were largely still in place.
There’s a discussion of it here:
It also mentions a similar effect with colds, and people having a particularly bad experience with colds (RSV specifically). I remember this happening in the UK just before omicron hit.
The thing is that several flu strains did disappear due to hand washing and etc. Not only in Taiwan but also abroad, even the old country is reporting this. But not all strains, flu is not fully gone.
As I said before, I expect pink eye to be a non event this year, but COVID has the contagious power of measles so that will remain.
It would be interesting to see data on tuberculosis and chickenpox, as well as seasonal flu overall for Taiwan.
Latest Taiwan pnu and flu deaths are updated here every week:
Some details from today’s press conference: for numbers in quarantine, about 7,000 in central or hotel quarantine (what’s the difference there?), and around 10,000 quarantining at home - so most people are actually doing this at home.
@Taiwan_Luthiers, answering your question from yesterday:
Quarantine in quarantine facilities can take place if an assessment determines that home quarantine conditions are not suitable, which will be paid for by the government. This will follow the principle that any individual in quarantine requires a room and bathroom to themselves.
Apparently no press conferences for the next four days.
Brian Hioe’s New Bloom article, and a couple of twitter links below that:
https://twitter.com/cookiebandit/status/1487675958391754755?s=20&t=C_zsthhwR9ioTs4c82x3eA
https://twitter.com/brianhioe/status/1487676363071176706?s=20&t=D9UxmL92A30daFJBGwHUbg
Those hotels must be happy to have some capacity over CNY, what with no tourists allowed in.
They are going to be very happy in March when the wave of students comes in who have been waiting to get in to Taiwan to study, I do think a good amount of them gave up on entering Taiwan at this point, but the hotel quarantine extortion business is about to rev up again after the CNY extortion. Licking their chops right now, 45k a pop, 14days, no way is the cdc going to allow students to 7/7/7. Might even keep them there for 21days. 
Enjoy your Taiwanese education with a side of extortion.
[Why does the reporter frame question as in eating LNY dinner?]
Cookiebandit clearly does not understand Taiwan culture.
Delicious food is the only news worth reporting.
All the Food, All the time.
Maybe some traffic accidents.
Especially if there is a food truck involved.
Where would students go for 7+7+7 if they don’t have a registered address here?
And if it’s a positive test at the end of your stay, then you remain in the hotel until negative?
And if so, who would pay for that?
im sure there are ways for the government of Taiwan and the CDC to coordinate something with the universities, but that would be too much hassle for everybody.
@FairComment I imagine then they go to a government facility or hospital to isolate.
So about 500 people die in Taiwan each week from Pneumonia / Influenza and what preventative actions are being taken by the Government?
And there have been no deaths in the past month or so that are Covid-19 related and all hell has broken loose.
sorry, this does not compute.
Of interest in the Brian Hioe article linked above by @lostinasia :
Of the 14 domestic cases, 5 cases were found in quarantine, while the other 9 were found through first-round testing.
So nine new local cases found today in the wild.
Guy
Why not? - 500 die in a month from one cause and little is mentioned.
50 (+/-) test positive to a virus in one day and thousands get put into Quarantine.
1 in 1000 people in Taiwan are in Quarantine? That’s pretty extreme. How much further are they intending to take this, I wonder? How many cases do we need to have before they stop hauling people off to quarantine? Chen’s statements so far indicate no endgame, other than something like “we need to prepare people to accept COVID”. This doesn’t seem to be the right way to do it.
I assume the reporter phrased it that way because CNY is a big deal. It’s like being locked up for Christmas. It’s cruel and unusual punishment.
Latest Taiwan TB data is here:
Taiwan National Infectious Disease Statistics System
You can also search for a myriad of other diseases in the search box.