This seems highly unlikely. No other country has recorded anything remotely similar, in either respect. The most plausible explanation would be “crappy recordkeeping” and/or “misinformed reporting”.
In the UK, as of the end of 2020, about 850 healthcare workers had died “of or with” COVID, and that’s a country with over a million “healthcare workers”. The NHS is the country’s biggest employer (in fact the biggest employer in the whole of Europe).
While most outside of government/media have been saying this for over a year, I think even inside government everyone accepts that herd immunity is either impossible or very close to impossible.
There was a guy seemingly making a related argument above. He didn’t provide any research or data (as usual), but the argument made sense in what I’ve read in my news feeds and searches.
I figure quarantine should end when one of two conditions is met (leaving aside home vs other-location quarantine):
A high percentage of the population here is fully vaccinated - 70-80%? As best I can tell with Delta, herd immunity now requires a really high number - in the 90s - so that’s probably no longer achievable, unlike with the less contagious versions of last year. But we need a lot more fully vaccinated than we currently have.
OR: The virus is as common here as it is elsewhere, so the quarantine no longer serves much of a purpose. This may already be the case in much of North America and Europe, for example - heck, perhaps everywhere except Taiwan, New Zealand, and Australia, and a few other isolated island locations. And China, if their numbers can be believed.
The virus will come in, and most of us are going to get it, but vaccination will lessen the inevitable toll.
However, I suspect the government will only lessen quarantine rules when #1 is reached; even if #2 happens, the rules will still stay in place.
So when will a sufficiently high proportion be vaccinated? The numbers others have quoted above suggest first quarter 2022. Going overseas without worrying about lengthy quarantine at Chinese New Year seems barely possible, but unlikely; doing so in summer 2022 seems more feasible.
But I probably made almost exactly the same projections a year ago, for 2021.
Oh, and at this stage I doubt home quarantine is ever coming back. Sadly.
Yeah, I agree - the current quarantine requirements have kept me from visiting my parents this summer. But, grudgingly, I suspect the strict quarantine rules are for the best. (For now.)
Yes they had a huge impact on me as well. Very ironic as if I travelled last year the risk was also high. Anyway…I hope local people realise how tough it is for foreigners but I guess they don’t.
Taiwanese Americans mostly ran back to America they always get the best deal.
Are you talking about Taiwan. We are all about quarantining and tracking. I have I flight attendant friend that does the quarantine a lot. All people who come in except from one country are quarantined.
Tracking? I’ve ready known friends that just missed covid infected people.
They should not open the borders unnecessarily. We did quite a few years okay before the tourists even knew of the existence of this place and we had almost no tourist industry to speak of. We have enough domestic clients and long-term foreigners to keep everyone busy.
Keep the quarantines until this virus eventually slows down and mutates to something less harmful…
What about option 3: everyone over the age of 17 who wants to get a vaccine has had the opportunity to get one? The vaccines are a modern miracle, but if people don’t want to take them, it doesn’t make sense to keep everything locked down until they are forced to. Just open up and let life go back to normal, and let people live with their decisions.
Depends what percentage that is, I suppose. I was assuming everyone who wants a vaccine gets one is equal to or higher than 70%, and therefore under Option 1.
Because a significant number of people cannot take the vaccine for health reasons - including, at present, children. If irresponsible adults are unwilling to take the vaccine then they are helping spread the virus and endanger those around them. I do not know what the legal pushes or requirements there should be for healthy adults to get vaccinated, but they should definitely be significant.
However, we are nowhere near a stage in Taiwan where there are enough vaccines available to discern the percentage that is unwilling enough to take them. That is a debate for another month, a debate that I hope will be moot and never necessary.