It must be very frustrating and demoralizing to be in that industry, as well as in the travel industry, which no doubt is getting crushed.
But unless we can get to no community transmission—this goal has been stubbornly elusive, with the Alpha variant on the loose—folks in these industries will need to figure something out, or simply exit the market. The vaccination rate across Taiwan is nowhere near where it needs to be to open wide, and just about everyone from Taipei to Kaohsiung has been consistently conservative/hesitant about making this sort of change. As someone upthread mentioned, with the municipal elections coming up in 2022, it’s hard to imagine elected officials changing course now.
If there is any bright light here, it’s that finally there is a clear schedule and roadmap with vaccines. Eyeballing the numbers (and I would welcome corrections here— @BeachBum !) it looks to me that we can get good vaccine coverage (i.e. double doses) across Taiwan by the end of 2021, with boosters from Moderna already ordered for 2022.
Are you seriously suggesting that because COVID will never be eliminated, all restaurants should close down?
Sorry, but that’s really not a world most people want to live in. Perhaps you’d like to go and found a new society somewhere where your ideals can be realized and the perennially fearful can live caged and happy?
I am watching what is going on in Taiwan, and saying there is little or no political appetite to reopen in-person dining now. As of course you know, take out and delivery have continued for the most part uninterrupted throughout this latest outbreak.
One of two conditions will change this political calculus:
no more community transmission; or
adequate vaccine coverage.
I’m not claiming this is the world I prefer (I like dining in as much as the next guy), but this is my honest take on how things look right now.
Not gonna happen, ever. It’s physically impossible.
Also not gonna happen, because vaccine coverage will never be considered “adequate”. Just look at the handwringing going on in countries where they have 90%+ adult vaccine coverage. Most civilized countries (including Taiwan) have completely vaccinated over-60s; or at least those of them who want the vaccine. COVID deaths here averaging 5 a day (ie., somewhat lower than the suicide rate). And yet here we are, with 23 million people still being denied some very basic human rights.
Unless people start standing up and saying “this is not the world we want to live in; stop it now” the politicians will keep playing the same everybody-loses game that played out elsewhere.
There is no “right the first time” for COVID. Australia thought they got it “right the first time” and now Delta is ripping through there like one of their bushfires. Best we can do is the hammer and dance.
I think that a lot of countries will be watching the USA, UK and EU over the next few months to see what effect their “adequate vaccine coverage” has on the Hospitalisation and Death Rates.
Doesn’t seem too far off at this point, as COVID seems to just mutate every few months to completely frustrate any efforts to slow it.
It might mutate itself in such a way that it would display patterns on your skin that can be read by any digital camera, that would then transmit itself across the internet, and then using some computers or smartphones with technologies, manufacture copies of itself that would be airborne and then infect the user.
The seemingly wholesale ditching of masks in some of these places has certainly made life easier for the virus, if not for the medical staff dealing with the spike in numbers.
Is gym equipment supposed to be open? My gym lady messaged me and said they were open. Plus there was a video with people working out on the machines. I’m confused lol
Yes, it is really terrible. Everyone has been hanging on thinking it will just be a month/two months and now this. If you listen to what these guys are saying, would you have any confidence that you could open in the next three months?
My gym has said the same, but we need to wear masks whilst working out. I’m not arguing with the rule but it just seems impossible to me to work out properly whilst wearing a mask.