Taiwanese models grappling with COVID-19 – Taipei Times

The Wuhan pneumonia epidemic has become a pandemic, but many countries are still facing the worsening severity of this medical crisis.

Historian Robert Peckham has studied how the ecology of deadly diseases has changed from the end of the 19th century to the present day, and in his 2016 book Epidemics in Modern Asia, highlights the intrinsic link between global connectivity and emerging infections.

The frequency of epidemics from SARS in 2003 to swine flu in 2009 and today COVID-19 and their rapid transmission speed owe much to globalization. Better and cheaper transport and communication technologies have strengthened international aviation, navigation and rail networks, contributing to the mobility of people and goods and popularizing tourism.

Yet the institutional engines and mechanisms driving globalization have made the world flat to borrow from the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and spread the pandemic in no time.

By reaping the material benefits of globalization, people often overlook the invisible risk of emerging infections, which can spread across continents, affecting people in vulnerable conditions and destabilizing economies around the world.

Many nations have invoked the vocabulary of war to characterize their struggle against the coronavirus, the sworn enemy of humanity. As the first epicenter of the pandemic, China has mobilized all of its medical and bureaucratic resources to cope with what President Xi Jinping () has called a people’s war against COVID-19, echoing mass health movements and to social programs of the Mao Zedong era ().

The powerful state of the Chinese Communist Party has relied on its long-standing system of surveillance of urban and rural areas to restrict mobility. Local party officials and police have erected roadblocks on main roads and in public squares, guarding entrances to government offices, medical facilities, schools and apartment buildings.

These officials continuously checked the temperatures, disinfected the residences and prevented foreigners from entering their territory. This combination of rigorous top-down surveillance and community cooperation is considered by Beijing to have slowed the spread of the coronavirus outside Wuhan.

The rhetoric of the fight against the coronavirus is not unique to China. Formerly a localized epidemic, this pandemic has invaded the rest of the world, with consequences that astound the imagination.

The increase in infections and confirmed deaths has prompted northern countries to implement similar tactics: suspend public gatherings, close national borders and impose restrictions on billions of people.

With global connectivity and mutually reinforcing viral transmission, the overlapping social, economic and political risks posed by the pandemic require radical intervention by government officials, medical personnel and business people at all levels.

Taiwan deserves credit for its bold, decisive and systematic efforts to manage the crisis. Even without being a member of WHO, the country, led by highly qualified and competent decision-makers who have faith in medical science and reason, has implemented aggressive crisis management. Vice President Chen Chien-jen () is a respected epidemiologist, while his successor, elected Vice President William Lai (), specializes in public health and rehabilitation medicine.

The nation has used artificial intelligence-led communication networks to identify, isolate and monitor infected people and find their contacts through technology that serves the common good.

By adopting a case-by-case tracking system to test the elderly and those with chronic health conditions, officials carefully identified residents and visitors suspected of having been in contact with COVID-19 and contained groups to high risk to slow the virus. propagated.

The government has canceled public gatherings, put in place mandatory quarantines and promoted the importance of personal hygiene through the media and public health education. Since early February, it has also put in place effective border controls, preventing travelers from China, Hong Kong, Macao and other hard-hit regions of Taiwan.

Hong Kong and Macao may not have seen as many cases as Wuhan, but their international ports can serve as major vectors for viral infection. Since January, their borders have been open to countless high-risk travelers, including daily commuters who reside in Chinas Shenzhen and Zhuhai, but cross the territories to work.

The infected travelers who crossed the territory’s ports and airports very early would have increased the rate of transmission to the rest of the world.

At a time when many countries are still developing measures to deal with the pandemic, Taiwan has a lot to offer the outside world. Its logical, comprehensive and balanced measures not only benefit its own population, but also serve as a model for disease prevention and control.

Joseph Tse-hei Lee is a professor of history at Pace University in New York.