I’m seeing different things from different people on this forum.
I don’t want this to be another anti-vax thread. I had a negative experience with my second dose which I recounted elsewhere. So if, as some on here are suggesting, you’re restricted in what you can do in Taiwan without that third dose, I’d rather make alternative plans and delay going back to Taiwan by yet another year. I would rather risk catching COVID (again) in the UK than risk having a repeat of what I went through with my last vaccine dose, even if it means staying put for longer.
As far as I’m aware, I have not yet needed to show any evidence of any vaccination to anyone. Necessary context: unsociable middle-aged university teacher who uses the school pool but lifts weights at home, not in a gym.
Possible exceptions: I use my health card when getting physiotherapy or entering hospitals. Maybe vaccination status matters for those. I don’t know.
I would describe the situation in Taiwan as fluid. There is some incentivizing of being boosted (to go to gyms, or to avoid having to isolate as a family contact of a COVID case). But who knows what the rules will look like next week, never mind in a few months.
I got my 3rd shot on 18 January and have never been asked to show proof. Then again, I have not entered a hospital either, which may or may not require proof.
The only widespread problem seems to be with gyms. Otherwise, it appears to depend very much on who you work for (or with). I don’t know anyone who’s been asked for proof-of-booster, but the CECC has told people they can make up their own rules, and that’s what they’re gonna do. Hence the widely-varying reports you’re seeing here.
I went to a bar the other day that says you needed to be triple vaxxed on a sticker outside but when we actually went in they said they never checked lol. I guess most places simply don’t gaf.
Interesting. Yes, this probably explains all the conflicting reports I’m seeing on here.
Thanks for all the responses! Not being able to go to the gym would be annoying (not to mention, it doesn’t make much sense considering that gym-goers are surely among the least likely people to die from COVID as they tend to lean more towards the younger and healthier end of the spectrum…), but I could just buy the equipment I need so it wouldn’t be that bad…
I’m just worried that the rules will change again for the worse at any moment and before you know it they won’t only require a third shot, but even a fourth, etc.
Nobody is keeping the CECC on a leash, so they’re just issuing random edicts when the mood suits them and I doubt it’s going to get better anytime soon. OTOH, hopefully people will realise - as they have elsewhere - that it’s just a never-ending treadmill of jabs and they’ll quietly stop complying. Third-dose takeup is below 50% in most countries. As Gain mentioned, some businesses are just pretending to go through the motions while keeping the customers happy. At the end of the day, businesspeople need to get customers through the door to pay the rent.
I hope you’re right, but I get the impression (though I’m not actually in Taiwan, so I could be wrong) that Taiwanese people aren’t fed up of all this and believe that even the ridiculous measures, like wearing masks outside, are justified. Whereas in Britain and elsewhere, people have quietly stopped complying while businesses pretend to care about the rules because, as you say, they just get that this is never going away and we need to get on with our lives.
Taiwanese people have their own unique ways of working around stuff. I think the hard reality of bills approaching at the end of the month is going to discourage the more fanatical business owners from screening customers at the door.
Remember we’re 18 months behind the UK. They’ve gone through the pain barrier and emerged into the still waters of PTSD and cynicism. Taiwan’s got all that to come.
I’ll keep hoping you’re right, but the Taiwanese (and Chinese) people I speak to are very much true believers that COVID is The Plague 2.0 and all measures are justified. And, unlike the UK during the dark days of lockdowns, Taiwan’s economy actually seems to have done quite well, unlike here where everybody has a favourite shop that closed down permanently and knows somebody whose livelihood has been shattered because of these measures. I also wonder if the fact that Taiwan has an ageing population and, thus, more people who follow the measures because they’re actually personally at risk and not “to keep grandma safe” (as the UK government urged us to do), is a factor…