In the history of infectious diseases, COVID-19 might be the first virus that has been highly politicized.
In the early days of the pandemic, conservatives in the US who supported then-US president Donald Trump tended to underestimate the virus, with some radical right-wing media calling the pandemic “a hoax,” and “fake news” concocted by the US Democratic Party to gain a political advantage over the Republicans.
However, as the pandemic surged at an exponential rate across the US — with hospitalizations and deaths soaring — the narratives of denial no longer worked.
Republicans and right-wingers then directed their fire at the COVID-19 vaccines. There have always been anti-vaxxers who consider it hazardous to receive any type of vaccine. With COVID-19 vaccines being developed at an unprecedented speed, doubts and distrust further deepened.
Undaunted, governments around the world encouraged people to get vaccinated, which has proven to be the right policy. When the rate of infections starting dropping, the radical right then started attacking the mask mandate.
Over the course of the pandemic, US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci became an iconic figure. Taiwanese media sometimes referred to him as “chief pandemic-control officer.”
Fauci is in many ways the “American Chen Shih-chung (陳時中)” — the former minister of health and welfare who headed the Central Epidemic Command Center.
As partisan polarization and antipathy ran deep between Democrats and Republicans, Fauci became the target of hate by people in “red states,” to the point of anti-science and anti-intellectualism.
In sharp contrast, many people in my neighborhood in the US put up signs in their yards saying: “Thank you, Dr Fauci,” or “We love you, Dr Fauci.”
There is no need to deify Fauci, but the antagonism from the right-wing escalated to the point where supporters were calling for his assassination. As a result, he was flanked by bodyguards when he went out for his daily jog.
Fauci once said that in his decades of experience dealing with outbreaks and pandemics, he has never encountered any pathogen like SARS-CoV-2, from which there is still a lot to be learned.
As different nations can only build on the evidence they have, everyone is doing their best to cope with the virus.
Without experience, every government is “winging it,” using resources and available evidence to make informed decisions.
While Taiwan’s biotechnology industry is not as advanced as the US or some European nations, a national effort to develop a vaccine was without a doubt the right way forward.
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is regarded as the UK’s homemade vaccine. AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot was awarded a British knighthood for services to UK life sciences and leadership in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In June, at Wimbledon’s Centre Court, the crowd gave a standing ovation to Sarah Gilbert, one of the scientists behind the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Unlike the opposition in Taiwan, no one accused the UK government of raking in profits by not importing vaccines.
The public should look at China’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the death and case rates around the world.
In March or April 2020, researchers at Johns Hopkins University predicted that Taiwan would be one of the countries most affected by the pandemic, with a situation potentially as bad as Wuhan, China.
However, Taiwan implemented early preventive measures and “bought time” with its strategy, with its first wave striking in May when COVID-19 medication, monoclonal antibodies and vaccines had already been imported. By that time, the US’ death count was in the hundreds of thousands.
Taiwan is no Eden, free of pestilence. People’s lives were very much affected by the pandemic. When my mother was fighting for her life in an intensive care unit, it was my biggest regret that I could not even visit her.
However, misjudging Taiwan’s outstanding performance in curbing the pandemic is a gross mistake. The opposition and its critics have the right to hate the Democratic Progressive Party or dislike Chen, but they should take an objective look at other countries’ performance and then judge how Taiwan handled the pandemic.
Despite US inflation being at a 40-year high and deteriorating public security, the Democratic Party appears to have staved off a Republican “red wave” in the midterm elections, showing that under the democratic mechanism, mature voters would not be easily led astray by partisan hatred.
In less than two weeks, Taiwanese must decide the outcome of their own midterm elections. Voters get to decide whether it would be an election undermined by cognitive welfare and partisan hatred, or a mature election impervious to rampant Chinese rumors.
Tiffany Hsiao is a Taiwanese expatriate and physician residing in the US.
Translated by Rita Wang
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