Taiwanese/Foreigner with Taiwanese roots who moved to Taiwan because of COVID?

Taiwan Moving to Taiwan
21

A few things, Taiwan never required anyone to be vaccinated to enter. As for continuation of mask wearing, the public supported that and many people continue to wear masks. Up to them.

Taiwan never had the lockdowns of businesses that overseas countries had. Overall Taiwan was really well run compared to other countries.

Covid only ended last year really not several years back. It started in early 2020 and Taiwan was way ahead of other countries as thermal imaging of people at ports of entry started after the first SARS epidemic. When Taiwan told the WHO that the new virus was human to human transmission in December 2019 China lied and the WHO lied along with China saying that was not true, when it was.

So those who had nationality chose to return from countries that were terrible places to be to Taiwanā€™s relative freedoms. If they left later on so what? They have that right. Taiwan may have been a bit slower but it was only a few months slower, certainly not the timeline of several years you write about.

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Taiwans mask mandates ended a full year after my countries. How do you say that Taiwan had more freedoms? It had more control, its as simple as that. Iā€™m not even sure my country ever closed the border. Taiwan was pretty much tied with China for being one of the last countries to let go of the controlling restrictions. News flash: That ainā€™t nothing to boast about.

And lets not forget, the attempts to push blame on outsiders. The daily reports of clock chen where the incoming cases were (comically)displayed bigger than the local ones.

The public supported mask wearing? Well thats good cus if you had a differing opinion you were shit out of luck. Itā€™s pretty clear the daily reports did a very successful job of brain washing the nation to never take the mask off ever. Even now, literally 2 years passed this virus being threatening and what? still a majority of people wearing them? its just sad.

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23

Speaking for myself, I am a foreigner who has been in Taiwan all through Covid and I was happy to be here. I was glad that travelers were being locked away in quarantine hotels. I understand the experience sucked and I am glad I have never been quarantined. I did not experience this personally, but I feel those people could probably have been treated better (but still quarantined). I feel lives were saved by controlling the spread of Covid and letting it spread in a more controlled fashion when lighter variants became more common. I also feel vaccinations helped save a lot of lives (mostly elderly).

In short, if something like Covid happens again, I will be glad to be in Taiwan.

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24

There are degrees of control. I think Taiwan avoided hard and intrusive control like curfews and limiting peopleā€™s freedom to move by implementing a mask mandate early, implementing contact tracking, making sure people understand what to expect, and making quarantine for those infected and those suspected of contact as comfortable as possible.

By doing all that Taiwanā€™s government avoided mandatory mass testing, like what was done in Korea and China, hard quarantines of entire areas like Italy and China, and curfews, or limiting the number of people who can go out to buy food per household like in the US. It also avoided government negligence of basic needs of those quarantined like in China.

Overall, things could have been better. However, considering the proximity of Taiwan and the level of cross-strait relations at the time of the outbreak, I think Taiwan still performed admirably.

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25

Nonsenseā€¦ no one blamed outsiders. There were many Taiwanese who traveled and simply chose to ignore quarantine when they returned and some were fined NT$1 million. Some were fined less. Some were locally employed pilots both Taiwanese and foreigners lost their jobs for breaking quarantine. Lotā€™s of news stories of people breaking quarantine and being fined. Both foreigners and locals. No one blamed covid on foreigners.

It had nothing to do with being a foreigner. It had to do with rule breaking. Mask wearing was lifted for coastal areas and mountain areas a long time before some city areas. If your main complaint is they kept mask wearing in place well thatā€™s a very minor issue. Most mask wearing was not required a year ago. If people still want to wear masks thatā€™s up to them. I havenā€™t worn them for a couple of years. I also did a home quarantine for 7 days after a trip to Indonesia last year. No big deal.

Iā€™ve been tested many times and afaik I have not had covid.

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26

Taiwan unlike other countries, did not stop citizens and residents from returning from overseas. Look at the recent inquiry in the UK to its harsh covid restrictions which now seem nonsensical.

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27

In a health emergency your opinion is irrelevant. I didnā€™t like the long term use of masksā€¦ I was lucky as where I live the rules for mask wearing was dropped long before before those living in the plains and cities. Was only when in the city would put on a mask before exiting my vehicle.

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Which countries were those?

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Ironic you would say that, because it is precisely the opinion of the government and those supporting it that wearing masks makes any difference, if you were to base it off science, which is what every one should have been doing as soon as omicron hit then there would never have been mask mandates in the first place.

I take it you have conveniently forgot the daily reports with the incoming cases displayed larger than the domestic. Or several news stories from that time of hotels and restaurants banning travelersā€¦ not locals.

If you live in Taipei and have to use public transport you would not think that way. I had no complaints of masks when i was back home, at most i had to wear it for 10 mins at a time. Here it was bloody unbearable. I was extremely relieved when the mandate was lifted. I can remember how weird to felt to see my classmates faces after months of looking at them masked up. It really was cult like imo. 2 years closed borders is a very harsh degree of control also.
And again people are forgetting, people were forced to quarantine in their rooms and report testing and all that crap.

When i was forced to stay in a quarantine hotel i had to report my temperature daily. For my standards it was definitely a big brother level of invasiveness.

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Incoming cases included citizens and residents. After all as you wrote the borders were closed to non residents.

I didnā€™t think much of the mask wearing either, it is what it is

31

Hi, Iā€™m not sure what you mean by ā€œForeigner with Taiwanese rootsā€, but Iā€™m guessing you mean foreigners who have lived in Taiwan before or have some other kind of previous connection? If so, maybe my experiences will be useful.

I canā€™t say COVID was the only reason I moved back to Taiwan, but seeing how well Taiwan was initially handling the pandemic while my country (the UK) was stuck in lockdown gave me the impetus to apply for a Gold Card to work in Taiwan. By the time I actually moved back, the vaccines had already been distributed across the world, COVID mortality rates were dramatically reduced, and Taiwan was one of the only countries in the world (with China) continuing strict control measures. I remember being taken aback and feeling like I had entered a parallel universe when I arrived at Taoyuan Airport being sprayed down by people in hazmat suits and escorted to a taxi to my overpriced and unnecessary quarantine hotel, but I accepted that this was just the price to pay for Taiwan getting through the pandemic so well.

However, after a little while, seeing people masking up in mountains with nobody around, parents masking literal babies (I strongly believe this should be outlawed), and no changes to peopleā€™s behaviour even after the mandate was dropped, I realised that the only way to describe the situation is a nation-wide mental illness.

Iā€™ve since left Taiwan again (hopefully temporarily) and this has nothing to do with the situation just described. However, I have to say that Iā€™ve lost a lot of respect for people and nation of Taiwan and canā€™t believe how conformist and irrational they are. Iā€™ve really never seen anything like it in my life. That said, I appreciate that nobody has ever (to my face, at least) criticised me for not wearing a mask.

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The borders here were never closed to residents or citizens.

Try traveling anywhere at that time and countries closed borders to non residents and some to all non residents and citizens.

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I doubt anyone who traveled forgot. It was the same or worse in other countries.

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Exactly, and I do not criticize people who still do. Also a lot of other ailments people had have not returned so severely as people are still wearing masks.

Iā€™ve not worn masks since 2021 when they dropped the requirement in well ventilated areas. I didnā€™t wear a mask for most of covid when not required to.

35

Uh, I still wear a mask at work over 8 hours a day, and wear it whenever I head out, and put on high quality ones when I go to the hospital. So you will forgive me for not understanding whatā€™s the big whoop about wearing a mask. I would prefer wearing a mask for years, over not being to buy stuff for my infant daughter or my cats when I need to for a month.

36

No not everywhere closed up for 2+ years. I donā€™t have a problem with what Taiwan did at the beginning. Sure, it wasnā€™t the worst place in the world at the beginning - to nobodyā€™s credit mind you. Taiwan got lucky that it didnā€™t spread in the early goings on. We had that Covid cruise boat in Jilong donā€™t forget, where everyone passed right through all the tourist sites around Taipei.

It was the reluctance to move on from it and the extended length of time they stayed closed off and kept the mandates. The govt literally loved having that much control, you canā€™t tell me otherwise. They refused to shift even after vaccine 1, vaccine 2, after it changed to omicron, after 99% of the rest of the world moved on.

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37

What kind of testimonies are you looking for? AFAIK nobody on Forumosa moved to Taiwan ā€œbecause of COVIDā€, and it seems odd that youā€™re asking after such people. Why on earth would anybody do such a thing? [EDIT: I see @FatKaz did in fact do this - I stand corrected]

Iā€™ve lived in Taiwan for 20+ years - does that count as ā€œTaiwanese rootsā€? - and moved back to Taiwan (when I was able to do so) somewhere in the middle of the COVID nonsense. Early 2021, IIRC. I moved back because of a confluence of circumstances - I was finally allowed to exit the country where I was stuck, I had work to do (ie., bills, rent and debts to pay), and the company I work for was finally in a position to employ me again.

When I got back to Taiwan, I was relieved to get away from the utter insanity that prevailed in the place I left, but then experienced precisely the same thing all over again. Masks, business closures, ā€œrestrictionsā€, ā€œcontact tracingā€, ā€œCOVID testsā€, fear and dishonest messaging from the government ā€¦ etc etc. I watched the exact same handover of State power to unqualified, inexperienced, unelected nobodies that occured elsewhere. And in the same way I lost faith in Democracy and Rule of Law that I (in my ignorance) supposed was the bedrock of Civilization, I lost faith in Taiwan too.

This foolishness is still with us. We still have people in authority making unfounded (in some cases completely false) statements to the public about COVID. We still have a lot of people walking around in masks, and a lot of people who even accept this as normal - see @hansiouxā€™s post above.

At some point - I think end of 2022 - I had to travel abroad, and like @RickRooney was then held in solitary confinement for two weeks, at my own expense, without any apparent reason and without any obvious legal authority behind it. I think the most unpleasant aspect of this experience was being herded outside at day 10(?) into a bus, disoriented and shellshocked, to have my nose probed, and then being screamed at by some jumped-up little cnut in a white coat to ā€œput my mask upā€. I had had a similar experience at the airport, where some halfwitted girl had insisted I either had to be sprayed all over with chemicals, or wear a hazmat suit in the taxi.

And then there was the vaccine hysteria. As we all know by now, the vaccines did precisely nothing (except, perhaps, harm people). And yet I was barred from the gym - a place full of the healthiest possible people - as a potential plague-carrier; again, with no apparent legal authority behind this ā€œmandateā€ other than ā€œbecause we say soā€.

ā€œCOVIDā€ in Taiwan was a disgrace. The government should be ashamed of themselves for what they did to the country, and of the complete and utter stupidity of the ā€œcontrol measuresā€ that they solemnly declared were both necessary and effective.

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38

Taiwan did not get lucky. Taiwan was prepared for it since the first Sars epidemic when China lied to the world. unlike other countries which refused to listen to Taiwan this government did a terrific job. Only when Omnicron version came along did they let it spread as it was a low risk for death.

You feel your rights were impinged upon. So sue the government.

39

They certainly did not, it spread in spite of them trying everything to stop it. They literally believed they were going to keep it out.

How? By wearing masks? Due to evidence and personal experience i no longer believe the masks do anything, so all i can conclude is that Taiwan got lucky when an early wave of covid infected tourists passed through Taipei and all of its tourist sites, yes this was before borders were closed.

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My personal hunch is that Taiwan had COVID the same as everyone else did. The idea that we ā€œkept it outā€ when passenger transport was operating normally until March 2020 (IIRC), and commercial transport operating all the way through, just makes no sense at all. Taiwan had done nothing differently to anybody else, right up to the point the whole world was collapsing into COVID hysteria. I think I actually left Taiwan on one of the last commercial flights, when several other countries had already closed their airports.

The CDCā€™s stroke of genius, it seems to me, was preventing people from testing. You may remember it was actually illegal to import COVID tests. They thereby avoided the ā€œcasedemicā€, and the few people who did get genuinely sick were easily subsumed into the ordinary baseline rate of people developing random respiratory diseases (several hundred a month under normal circumstances, IIRC). I doubt Taiwanese doctors or reporters would have been keen to contradict orders from The Authorities, any more than they were willing to elsewhere. Itā€™s just that in Taiwan the targets were somewhat different.

I canā€™t claim to know why they would have played it this way, only to reverse course in late 2021. It just seems deeply improbable (although I suppose not impossible) that Taiwan was genuinely ā€œCOVID freeā€ when nobody else had achieved that.

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