How Taiwan held off Covid-19, until it didn't
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Published 2021-07-06
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In December 2019, Taiwan‘s government learned that at least seven atypical pneumonia cases had been reported in Wuhan, China. Because of Taiwan’s proximity to China and the number of flights back and forth, it was expected to have the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases worldwide.
Instead, Taiwan has had one of the lowest Covid-19 death rates in the world. Thanks in part to a sophisticated digitized health care system and a mandatory two-week quarantine for all travelers, life in Taiwan went on with relative normalcy. But then, in May 2021, a new wave of cases complicated the country’s success.
So how did Taiwan, the ninth-most densely populated nation in the world, avoid a more severe spread of a highly contagious virus for so long? And what lessons can be learned from their response to the outbreak?
Correction: We omitted a credit to our Taipei-based producer, Clarissa Wei.
This video was made possible by a grant from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund as part of our Pandemic Playbook series: www.vox.com/22403980/the-pandemic-playbook
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All Comments (21)
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“Highest surge” in Taiwan is lower than “now New York returned to normal due to vaccines” .
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I went on an exchange to Taiwan in Februari 2020. Back then people sometimes mocked me for going closer to the source of covid. Boy were they wrong. I won the lottery and was amongst the privileged few students worldwide who could finish an unforgettable exchange. Stay strong Taiwan, wish you all the best from the Netherlands! 💪🇹🇼
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It is completely impossible to orchestrate such a rigid system in the West where everybody is like "this is an imposition on my freedom"
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I don’t know what you mean by “until it didn’t” because clearly they are still on top in managing covid-19 compared to other countries.
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Even during their worst times with a population of 24 million they were able to contain the daily cases under 600, i mean that's really terrific.
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Taiwan, a densely populated island of 23 million, brought the number of cases from 600 a day down to 20 a day in 8 weeks without any hard lockdown. Quite an achievement by any standards.
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This video needs to be updated. As of 8/10 there are only three new cases. They were able to control it in just a couple of months without going full lockdown.
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Not like "untill we didn't" it was really still in control. The highest we got was 700 cases a day and it dropped after that. Now we're getting numbers below 10
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0:54 "Ed has dual citizenship in Taiwan and Canada, but lives in New York" Mr. Worldwide
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I live here in Taiwan and the compliance of people is amazing. The government never started an official lockdown, instead they limited indoor and outdoors gatherings and the vast majority of people have gone along with it. Because of people's civic duty cases went from 500ish a day end of May and early June to now only about 30 a day the last few days. What this video fails to mention is that covid got past the quarantine firewall because a pilot returned to Taiwan infected. At that time pilots and airline staff were considered fairly low risk as they aren't supposed to leave the airports in the country they travel to so they were only required to quarantine for 3-5 days. Pilot didn't have symptoms until almost 2 weeks after he returned to Taiwan when he had already been out of quarantine. They've changed the rules now thank goodness.
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The way they strategize things, it's so systematic. But how they execute them, much more IMPRESSIVE. So much respect!
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Taiwan is one of the nicest and most pleasant places I have ever been . Charming and polite people . salute !!
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Taiwan considers 500 daily cases as a “surge in cases” and here in India we be reporting 40k cases daily still and we opening up and acting like everything is back to normal . I do envy the Taiwanese ,a job well done
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"Mistakes are going to happen, the trick, is to learn from them"
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I really like the way they handled this in the beginning. There’s no doubt in my mind they will get it under control again in time. Great story. Thanks. Unfortunately, some countries citizens will never accept the restrictions that are necessary…. They are to selfish.✨
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Interesting how there isn’t a focus on “why” the outbreak happened. Sure, lack of vaccines and loosening restrictions take part. However, I believe the rest of the world not having as efficient and enforced quarantine system as Taiwan is the main issue. They have consistently had almost 0 new daily cases for over a year. Covid doesn’t appear from thin air so I would point to international travel being the culprit. With mutations in the virus (due to continued spread elsewhere allowing covid to become familiar an adjust), I’m sure Taiwan’s outbreak was from a more infectious variant of covid. Vaccine urgency would not be needed if covid was spreading less.
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"biggest outbreak ever" 500 cases Me: screams in US
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“They were best friends... until they weren’t.”
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Taiwan has a great system for keeping covid out, if only the whole world had a similar system.
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"The trick is to learn from them..." Too bad many people in my country (US) don't believe in that sort of thing :-\
