Taipei Times: The positive and dark sides of human nature were revealed when Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital was sealed off because of an outbreak of SARS. What do you think of medical morals of those doctors and nurses who ran away? How could they make impartial decisions when they knew living up to their responsibilities means putting their own lives at risk?
Wu Shuh-min (
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
The conditions inside were not ideal either. The healthy and the unhealthy were put together for the sake of isolation. To be straightforward, such a method might kill everyone inside.
At Jen Chi Hospital, each person was allotted an isolation ward and the hospital was sealed off after careful planning. [In Hoping Hospital's case,] it is rather impossible to prevent its health workers from having emotional reactions. Some of the health workers ran out to protest.
As a result, television stations repeatedly aired pictures of the protesters which led the public to regard the hospital's health workers as unreasonable.
I heard many of the hospital's nurses were not relieved from their duties as scheduled. Even virtuous people might not be willing to die for patients. Besides, even when faced with such a difficulty, some health workers sacrificed themselves.
We cannot judge the whole picture by a single image. The media's responsibility should be to educate the public about how to prevent the spread of the disease.
TT: You have been quarantined. Do you feel your freedom has been greatly limited? Are you concerned about your family? Have they been worried about you?
Wu: We have all been very worried. Being quarantined is my social responsibility. If people don't understand that being quarantined is their social responsibility, they would indeed complain a lot.
My wife did not complain. She was also quarantined. Only when people understand and agree [that quarantine is a social responsibility] can they willingly accept isolation.
TT: In the case of Hoping Hospital, some health workers ran away, while others not on the staff volunteered to help. What motivated these people to take such action?
Wu: I think it is a matter of faith. They [the volunteers] knew if they took the necessary precautions, they would not be infected with SARS, even though they still had to run a certain amount of risk. Only those with sufficient courage, wisdom and medical knowledge would offer to help.
TT: You once practiced medicine in the US. How do you compare the medical ethics of doctors in the US and in Taiwan?
Wu: The social status of doctors in the US and Taiwan is different. The [two countries'] circumstances are different. In the US, a doctor takes care of fewer patients than a Taiwanese doctor does.
Therefore, doctors in the US have more time to give better explanations to their patients about their illness. In Taiwan, doctors seem to have been symbols of authority since the Japanese colonial period. Doctors lack communication with their patients.
As for medical ethics, I think Taiwanese doctors are no different to US doctors in this aspect. In both the US and Taiwan, there are doctors whose only goal is to make money.
TT: A Hoping Hospital doctor has been sacked because he ran away when the hospital was sealed off. Do you think such a punishment is unfair?
Wu: I am not sure whether such punishment was fair for him. Unless I am clear about the reason he fled isolation, I cannot judge whether his behavior could be justified. However, a number of people did deserve punishment in the Hoping Hospital incident because they did not take up their social responsibility.
TT: As a doctor, you have often caught the flu from your patients. Being infected by patients seems to be an unavoidable fact of life for doctors. What is your perception?
Wu: I used to be infected by patients quite frequently, and the flu would last for a long time. However, my illness did not affect my treatment for patients. Since I began wearing surgical masks while working, I have rarely been affected again.
TT: What is your opinion of the arrival of two WHO officials?
Wu: If they came voluntarily, their help would be significant for Taiwan's bid for WHO observation status. But they came only after consulting with China, which has largely reduced the significance of their visit to Taiwan.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods