Squeezed between stacks of epidemiology notes in Harvard University’s Countway Library in Boston prior to my final exams, it was safe to assume that my most important lessons in public health were behind me.
I was finishing my master’s degree in public health and of course did not anticipate the coming COVID-19 pandemic and how my annual trip to Asia would be affected.
I had planned a trip to volunteer at a free clinic in Vietnam for February that also included a much-anticipated week in Taiwan.
As the trip drew near, the viral syndrome that would become known as COVID-19 was a growing regional concern and the Vietnamese clinic was canceled.
Cautious, but undeterred, I decided to still travel to Taiwan, where I witnessed one of the greatest public health lessons of a lifetime.
I came to understand Taiwan as a model for the world on how a democratic country addresses public health challenges, in spite of a regional adversary and unfair exclusions.
This was my first trip to Taiwan and it was a whirlwind tour. I traveled with a friend who is fluent in Mandarin and was an essential guide.
We began in Taipei, visiting the National Palace Museum. We gazed at the Meat-shaped Stone (the Jadeite Cabbage was on temporary display in Tainan). We ate chou doufu in the night markets and celebrated my birthday at a Michelin-starred restaurant.
We met with Taiwanese physicians at a shopping mall buffet and launched a sky lantern in New Taipei City’s Pingxi District (平溪).
We traveled by public train to Tainan and were hosted by another Taiwanese physician in Yanshuei District (鹽水) for the Beehive Festival.
Before returning to Taipei, we stopped at the beautiful Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum in Kaohsiung.
I eventually returned to the US, and as COVID-19 and lockdowns spread, I often found myself daydreaming about this trip to Taiwan.
Thinking back on my trip, I began to understand the wisdom of the Taiwan model. Hand sanitizer was ubiquitous. In the cities, everyone wore masks. On a typical day traveling between my hotel to markets and restaurants, I would have my temperature checked perhaps a dozen times.
There were more sophisticated interventions as well: I saw thermal cameras in public spaces and received mobile alerts as part of Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang’s (唐鳳) Civic Hacking initiative.
These were the public health interventions I witnessed firsthand.
However, Taiwan’s public health preparedness began well before I arrived.
Taiwan alerted the WHO about a viral pneumonia in December last year.
That same day, Taiwan began inspecting passengers on flights from Wuhan, China.
On Jan. 26, Taiwan suspended all air travel with China.
Contrary to the wisdom of the Taiwanese with experience from SARS, the WHO reasserted in March that there was no need for the healthy public to wear masks.
Due to robust domestic supply chains, Taiwan supplied its citizens with an adequate supply of masks.
Taiwan’s success is now obvious worldwide. Without ever imposing lockdowns, Taiwan has experienced 550 cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths nationwide.
Its success has not only been domestic. Taiwan has donated millions of masks around the world. The masks I wear each day when I treat patients in the US were made in Taiwan.
Taiwanese physicians have published important research and academic reports in top journals.
Taiwanese researchers are collaborating with counterparts in the EU and the US on diagnostics and therapeutics.
These successes are in spite of a regional adversary in Beijing, and exclusion from the WHO and other international bodies.
Yet, in the wake of Taiwan’s pandemic success comes renewed friendships with like-minded countries around the world. In rapid succession, former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and US Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Keith Krach traveled to Taiwan to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and participate in memorial services for “Mr Democracy,” former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).
Czech Senate Speaker Milos Vystrcil visited the legislature in Taipei and declared: “I am Taiwanese.”
Taiwan established diplomatic ties with Somaliland and received well-wishes from around the world on Double Ten National Day, despite demands from Beijing for silence.
Taiwan is a model for the world of how a democratic country should addresses public health challenges, and like-minded countries and international bodies should continue to deepen and strengthen mutually beneficial ties with Taiwan.
The Taiwan model began as wise public health policy, but has transformed into an inspiration for free societies worldwide. Increasingly, people around the world are taking notice of Taiwan’s success and growing impatient with its unfair exclusion from international bodies.
Even though it was outside of a traditional classroom, the Taiwan model became my greatest lesson in public health.
Dennis Porto is a physician and public health practitioner.
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