After initially ignoring Taiwan’s requests to evacuate its nationals from Wuhan, the epicenter of the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, Beijing finally relented and 247 Taiwanese returned home on Monday.
Regardless of what made China change its mind, it is definitely a rare positive development amid Beijing’s continued efforts to exclude Taiwan from the WHO.
Proper precautions were taken during the process and the evacuees are to be quarantined for two weeks before they are allowed to go home, with their temperatures taken twice per day. If they show any signs of infection, they would be taken to a hospital immediately.
However, viral outbreaks tend to cause panic, and there have been reports of Wuhan residents being shunned and treated as outcasts in their own country — as well as virus-induced xenophobia against Asians in Western countries.
Following a commotion over a government decision to temporarily ban mask exports, people should refrain from stigmatizing or acting maliciously toward the evacuees and their families.
It has already happened to a recent returnee from Wuhan who got out before the lockdown: On Saturday, someone posted his address and other information on a local Facebook group, claiming that he has infected his entire family and urging people to avoid them and be careful when passing by their house. The post has since been deleted, but not before it was shared by other users.
The authorities on Monday contacted the man who wrote the post, who said he saw it in a private group and thought that more people needed to know about it. He denied any wrongdoing, saying he was only trying to be helpful. He said he did not verify the report, not knowing that failure to do so was against the law.
Such panic is understandable, as there have been reports of irresponsible Taiwanese returnees from Wuhan breaching their mandatory self-quarantine and appearing in public — and posting about their activities on Facebook.
Reports that two returnees falsified their information to avoid being checked on by the government also caused a public uproar, but what really happened is still unclear, as the pair said they were never asked to fill in any information when they arrived on Jan. 16 and that they have followed quarantine procedures.
Taiwan only started requiring all passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macau to fill in detailed health information on Monday last week, a Central News Agency report said.
While the case is still under investigation, the two have become vilified figures, which can be dangerous in the Internet age if another unscrupulous netizen decides to reveal their personal information.
The government is doing the right thing in tracking down and warning everyone who spreads false information; several have already been fined.
However, the most egregious “fake news” comes from the WHO, which not only continues to list Taiwan as part of China, but even got the number of infected people wrong. The government has slammed that as “fake news” and lodged a protest.
Internal bickering over just about anything is a time-honored Taiwanese tradition, but this is a serious humanitarian crisis with conditions unfavorable to Taiwan. Instead of creating more discord and internal distrust, people should treat each other more kindly so that the nation can get through this and move forward.
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