Health officials yesterday expressed concern over the heightened emotional state of protesters outside the Presidential Office, stressing that short-term political objectives should not be pursued at the cost of health.
"Emotions are contagious, and the more heightened the emotion, the more contagious it is. Maybe a crowd has very simple requests to begin with, but in a mob situation, it can be very hard to control people," said Vivian Yeh (葉雅馨), a mental health section chief at the John Tung Foundation and chief editor of the magazine Health for All.
Lee Ming-been (
"If the leadership does not consider the needs of the crowd, then they are just politicians and nothing more. It's like if doctors do not express concern for their patients, then they are numb to the situation," Lee said.
Lee was speaking at a Department of Health press conference held just after local media reported that a 79-year-old Hualien woman had been admitted to hospital after a heart attack apparently induced by watching days of live TV broadcasts of post-election protests.
According to family members, she had been agitated about the pan-blue camp's protest demanding a vote recount. Local media labeled her the first victim of the post-election turmoil.
Lee yesterday discussed several health difficulties that often went unnoticed after an election.
"While `post-election stress syndrome' is not a medical term, elections can bring on a collection of syndromes," Lee said.
"The pressure brought about by elections is not always based on a single factor. In addition to election results, many face feelings of threat or uncertainty. For example, some might worry about economic change," Lee said.
"For patients with diabetes, high blood pressure and insomnia, for example, symptoms may worsen due to changes brought about by elections. Stress can determine when a person falls ill," he said.
Lee stressed the importance of taking a break from emotional agitation. He said it would be useful for the crowds outside the Presidential Office to stretch and breathe slowly every once in a while.
However, Yeh pointed out that in a mob situation, leaders played an important role in the shaping the crowd's emotional condition.
"It's difficult in a mob situation for the crowd to rethink its initial intentions in taking action. It is important to treat all people with respect no matter what your ultimate goal is. This entails persuasion on the part of the leader. The leader's personal emotional management can affect that of the crowd," Yeh said.
Lee said that disasters impact people biologically, psychologically and socially.
"Disasters such as the earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the SARS outbreak and political turmoil have forced us to rethink social interaction and learn from it. Above all, there needs to be a basic level of respect," Lee said.
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