as cobit 19 cases climbed around the
world once again we take a closer look
at the government that has
most successfully tackled the pandemic
in asia
taiwan just seven people have died of
the coronavirus there with a total of
570 cases
ever recorded as of this tuesday
some people have pointed out its island
geography as one explanation
but take one look at the uk and that
should dispel any myth about an island
advantage
in fact taiwan was especially vulnerable
in the early days of the pandemic
with hundreds of flights going to china
every week making its success in the
fight against kovid
all the more remarkable
massive crowds joyful faces
this year taiwan's pride parade was more
than a showcase for the island's
liberties
but also its achievement in containing
coronavirus
it seems surreal to many others around
the world still suffering from the
outbreak
but here there has never been any kind
of lockdown
people have gone through more than 200
days without a local transmission record
jason wong a public health expert from
stanford university
has been studying the taiwan model since
the early stage of the pandemic
he traveled twice from the u.s to taiwan
this year
one of the things that i noticed
immediately is how serious
that they take the quarantine procedures
and so they track you by sort of your
cellular signals
on your phone the location where we will
under going quarantine there were barely
any signals
and so so we got visited by the police
and the public health department speedy
and strengthened border control
is the most important key to success
except residents
and travelers with special visas nobody
is allowed to enter taiwan
even though it's too late for regions
like the u.s and europe to stop the
virus at the border
the expert thinks that contact tracing
quarantine and universal mask wearing
are still relevant
lessons that should be learned from
taiwan
just because you you have lockdowns and
then you release
people and then you lock down getting
through these people that does not
necessarily help
data is actually critical uh a data
uh coming from testing or or or you know
data coming from
uh individuals uh for contact tracing
and that needs to be standardized and
and
in order to now an effective response
taiwan's success in fighting the
pandemic not only benefits its public
health but also the economy
the island will manage to make it one of
few economies in the world
to expand this year with around 1.5 gdp
growth as forecast
taiwan's covert 19 defense strategy
works
now it's exploring more sustainable ways
to step forward
as some scientists including jason wong
and also local professor
jian chang chen suggest to the authority
taiwan will be qualified to reopen
its border in the near future we can
come up
a kind of formula that
we can shorten
the quality days by increasing
testing with affordable
you know cost even with
machine develop and dispute we still
need this
they hope by establishing credible
travel bubbles
taiwan can set an other example to lead
the world
into a new normal
joining us is dale fisher professor of
infectious diseases at national
university of singapore
adele one thing i keep hearing is that
taiwan is a small
island uh new zealand is another example
and that what they're doing can't really
scale
up for europe or the united states
what's your take
oh it's certainly very difficult uh the
countries you mentioned
um likewise china thailand
vietnam that they've got like a
uh zero tolerance policy if you like
they
they try and eradicate if they have any
cases they have
uh severe lockdowns massive testing
um and really try and get it back to
zero that's
that's their strategy
and so do you think that the strategies
that taiwan has employed
would be able to then cross over and be
used by the united states
which clearly the government there has
not really employed a lot of the
strategies that we see in taiwan
i don't think it would be feasible i
think it's
especially at this stage of the outbreak
uh
i don't believe people would be tolerant
for the
the imposition that these policies have
they're very good for
for health but they they they really um
to get cases to zero but uh but it
really
means a lot of vigilance a lot of
lockdown tight border controls
these types of things and and we know
these have major
uh economic and and social impacts
um i think a more reasonable model that
you might compare for europe and asia
might be that seen by other countries
sorry europe and the us would be seen in
other countries in
in asia such as singapore malaysia
south korea hong kong
japan these countries uh
tolerate cases uh even tolerate clusters
but
but try and shut down these clusters
they've got very strong uh
public health systems uh but this allows
for a little bit more leniency in terms
of the the lockdowns and the social
restrictions and that
intensity of mass testing that's that's
required when you
when you have a case so that's a
slightly different strategy which is
a degree of of tolerance and and if you
like living with the virus
what of course you can't you or no one
should be prepared to accept is
free-flowing community transmission
which is what's happening in
in europe and the states at the moment
you know one thing that you keep hearing
when you look at
uh what's happening in asia especially
east asia
is just that the people the citizens
there are more obedient that their
confucian culture
makes them prioritize the collective
over the individual that could be kind
of a stereotype do you
buy that argument looking at all the
countries that you just mentioned
listen i think if if in any of these
asian countries if there was harsh
lockdowns
and then it was unlocked and then there
was mad
uh spread and and and again
uh large numbers of cases deaths
and the need for more lockdowns i i
would say
uh that the same frustrations that we're
seeing from the communities
in in europe and and the americas yeah i
think you would see it in
in many parts of asia but the point is
is that the
the action was fast and decisive
the public health systems were built up
any lockdowns were minor
and and brief and and therefore
there's trust in the government trust in
the strategy
and if you think about it europe did
lock down right
they are wearing masks so things that
you thought
wouldn't be tolerated before now are
being tolerated so
so i i don't think it's entirely
cultural
if it's not cultural then i wonder if
it's political taiwan is a democracy
china isn't singapore for that matter
isn't either do you think the form of
government
matters in the fight against the
pandemic
i think what matters is the relationship
between
government health departments and the
public
and and we we call it risk
communications community engagement
that that has that that's the number one
pillar in
any outbreak response
whether it's ebola or any type of
infectious diseases that spread
spreading in a in an epidemic sort of
way
you have to engage the people so that
they can understand how to protect
themselves
they can understand how to assist in the
predicament
uh because they're critical and and in
in
in no any lesser way is is covert 19
where it's community spread and
how the community behaves is absolutely
directly related to the outcomes dale
fisher thank you so much for your time
my pleasure
you