A doctor in Hualien urged the public to exercise proper media literacy when reading news about COVID-19 after seeing an increase in the number of people seeking treatment due to anxiety over the spread of the virus.
One woman who had been treated for neurosis redeveloped symptoms, as she was severely distressed over uncertainties linked to the virus, such as whether she could buy masks every day, Chen Shao-tzu (陳紹祖), head of the addiction center at Hualien Tzu Chi General Hospital, wrote in an article published on Feb. 8 in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times).
The woman was unable to sleep, had tightness in her chest and trouble breathing, he said.
Another man — who had been treated for severe depression and appeared to have the condition under control — had suicidal thoughts due to the stress of having to take his parents to the hospital every day, making him afraid he would be infected, Chen said.
One man who had no prior conditions came to him asking to be given a thorough checkup to look for signs of COVID-19, saying that he had recently returned from a visit to Beijing and was worried he was infected, Chen said.
However, it turned out the man last visited China six months ago, Chen said, adding that he has seen an increasing amount of “irrational” behavior due to anxiety about the virus.
Hypochondria cases are harmful because they use up healthcare resources that should be channeled toward disease prevention, he said.
“Social media have given rise to all sorts of information online. Some of it is true, but a lot of it is aimed at attracting readers for self-promotion,” Chen said.
“The first step to make yourself at ease is to carefully choose what you listen to and read,” he said.
People with a history of psychological conditions to continue their medication, while those afraid of visiting hospitals could speak to a doctor about the possibility of home treatment, he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater