COVID-19 cases in Taiwan have risen sharply over the past week. People are nervous, but when the government issues prevention-related information, they are quick to comply.
The situation in Spain is much worse. On Tuesday, the seven-day average of new cases was 6,500, but police still had to dispel thousands of people from Barcelona’s streets and beaches.
This comparison shows that most Taiwanese maintain pandemic prevention discipline without enforcement.
In addition, if cases at the beginning of the current outbreak had not been reported by an emergency room doctor at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Yilan County’s Luodong Township (羅東), the situation might have become more serious before the outbreak was detected.
This highlights the important contribution of frontline medical staff to pandemic prevention.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) insists that prioritizing expertise, the sacrifices of primary medical staff and public cooperation are the main factors behind Taiwan’s achievements in containing COVID-19.
However, as the public and frontline medical staff continue their work, a legislator-at-large without even the most fundamental medical expertise organized a meeting on behalf of pilots and demanded that the government relax quarantine restrictions. Politics overrode expertise.
As soon as the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) allowed pilots the convenience of three days of quarantine and 11 days of self-health management, some China Airlines pilots began ignoring the self-health management requirements.
A review considered this, as well as Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel’s mishandled pandemic prevention measures, to be the breaking point that allowed COVID-19 to get a foothold in the nation.
The Taoyuan Union of Pilots first lobbied the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayor of Taoyuan to implement the shortened requirements, which was later followed by a proposal by the DPP legislator-at-large, who has no real political power.
The public does not care about the division of powers and responsibilities between the central and local governments, all they see is that the DPP is deeply involved.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) recently apologized twice, over connections to organized crime within her party and following power outages on Thursday last week. Now the COVID-19 issue is affecting her.
It is almost as if DPP members are tripping her up.
Chen has received widespread praise for his expert handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but now his reputation is taking a beating, as he was forced to compromise, placing the opinion of amateurs over experts because of political pressure.
This should be a lesson to DPP members: Respect expertise, keep amateurs out of it, insist on justice and fairness, and do not let politics interfere with pandemic prevention.
As for the pandemic, many countries report thousands of cases every day. By comparison, Taiwan is still relatively untouched.
There is no need for Taiwanese to panic. If people maintain strict discipline, cooperate with frontline medical staff and follow CECC guidelines, Taiwan will overcome these difficulties.
While the public and medical staff are fully cooperating, the government should be on guard, make sure that all necessary preventive measures are carried out and avoid any more selective relaxations of regulations.
Hopefully the government will be able to mend its ways and regain the trust of the public.
Tommy Lin is director of Wu Fu Eye Clinic and president of the Formosa Republican Association.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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