There were 32 new deaths from local cases today, including 20 males and 12 females, aged in their 40s to their 90s. All had severe infections, 30 had a history of chronic disease, 18 hadn’t received the recommended 3 doses of COVID-19 vaccine and 14 hadn’t had any doses at all. The date of diagnosis was from May 18 to July 30, 2022, and the date of death was from May 28 to July 31.
Is it possible that we will be seeing 20000 cases plus or minus per day for the rest of the year? Maybe even next year? If that’s the case how long can the government continue with these restrictions? When will it get through to them that the restrictions are not working? They say their goal is not zero covid (or at least back to where they were over two years ago with a few a day) but actions say otherwise.
No one among Taiwan’s health authorities is talking about Zero COVID now. People eating in restaurants, hanging out in cafes, while community spread continues. If they wanted Zero COVID (which they have abandoned) they would close those things down as they did in earlier instances of community spread.
Not good enough. They need to speed up reopening. This whole virus loses its stakes when we literally have China on our doorsteps. Taiwan needs all the friends it can get right now. Open the borders, ditch quarantine, be in line with almost every other country on the planet, and let China be the “sick man of Asia” who still lockdown cities over 2 cases and culls pets when they abduct their owners to go to their dystopian quarantine centers.
Nah, there will be another wave and then they will be shitting bricks and making more dumbass restrictions again. They had their bloody chance to normalize things and they still think they can control this virus. Nothing has been learned.
That can’t possibly be the reason for this interminable clownshow. Nobody can be that stupid. Whatever it is they’re up to, I don’t think it has anything to do with COVID anymore. I suspect they’ve just dug themselves into a hole that they can’t climb out of, at least not without losing face. So they’re postponing the day of reckoning until … well, until retirement I suppose. Chen already got himself a nice soft landing.
They are managing public health. That’s their job.
If you seek an alternative model, I invite you to Canada, where many if not all provinces have stopped counting cases and claimed the situation is simply up to “individual choice.”
That sounds great! Good idea - hopefully Taiwan can adopt this policy soon, as you suggest.
On a serious note, Taiwan isn’t even accurately counting cases anymore, although they may still be trying/pretending to and you may still be falling for it. They simply don’t have any idea what proportion of cases are bothering to test and what proportion of those are bothering to report (in my personal circle, I’d estimate less than half, including both foreigners and Taiwanese, with me being one of the few exceptions who did).
Without knowing those things, it’s just a show and the daily reported numbers are of extremely limited meaning. They may have had some academic/epidemiological value a year ago, but not any more. If they still want to monitor progression, they’d have been better off switching to sewage testing like two months ago. (Funny how we haven’t heard anything else about that since this outbreak took off…) Or doing antibody testing of blood samples collected in hospitals.
You can’t honestly still be more worried about a defanged COVID than our extremely fraught geopolitical situation. I know which one is making me lose sleep right now.
Two months of traveling throughout N. America, Brazil, and the Middle East. Covid wasn’t on my mind until I was told to wait in a tight line and spit a cup while waiting in a nasty ass plastic cubicle. About as bad as a public restroom.
No, I don’t care anymore. I’ve had 3 shots and the virus is endemic. Everyone I know who has had it (a lot of people) have been vaccinated and either compare it to a cold or a hangover. I have bigger things on my mind, as we all do. At this point, social harm from continued COVID policies is much greater than any danger from the virus.
