Taiwan is facing its severest outbreak since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Everyone should do their part to maintain social order, starting by not panic buying.
While a cluster infection linked to China Airlines that started last month has gradually subsided, new clusters have been found in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), New Taipei City’s Wugu (五股) and Lujhou (蘆洲) districts and Yilan County’s Luodong District (羅東), with their links still being investigated.
The daily number of local cases continues to set records, with yesterday’s number rising to 180 (not including five imported cases), leading the government to raise the pandemic alert in New Taipei City and Taipei to level 3 for two weeks.
Despite a few previous crises, most residents in Taiwan had been leading normal lives envied by people in many other countries. Now, with the government health authorities and hospitals carrying the heavy load of this outbreak, ordinary people must also play their part in curbing infections, starting by not creating panic.
Most people do not need any more reminders about wearing masks and maintaining social distancing, yet they need self-restraint with regards to panic buying and spreading false information.
Many supermarkets in Taipei and New Taipei City were yesterday swarmed by seemingly healthy buyers wanting to stockpile dried food and daily necessities, apparently out of fear that the supplies would run out quickly in the event of a lockdown.
When there is no shortage of supplies, panic buying is selfish and counterproductive, as manufacturers and retailers have to restock products more often, and other people in more urgent need might not be able to acquire the goods they need. Gathering at the markets also increases the risk of virus transmission.
Some of the panic buying might be prompted by online disinformation, which is trickier to contain than COVID-19. For example, three voice messages on Friday went viral among users of the messaging app Line in Pingtung County. In the messages, a man speaking Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) said that up to 20 feverish students traveling from Taoyuan to Kenting (墾丁), warning taxi drivers against taking such passengers.
In another message, also spread through Line, a woman, whose accent sounded Chinese, said her younger sister is a nurse who told her that there are far more confirmed cases in Taipei and Keelung than reported by the government.
Fake news travels faster than corrections can catch up with it. People should help maintain social order by only sharing information from official sources that can be held liable if they lie.
The old saying that “a crisis can be a turning point” rings true at this juncture.
The cluster infection in Wanhua sheds light on some neglected aspects of Taiwanese society, as “interpersonal contacts” — as it was called in an understatement by Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) — are potential loopholes in the preventive measures against spreading diseases, not just COVID-19.
While some people are more than happy to work from home, the heightened alert exposes the inevitable risks faced by medical personnel, food couriers, staff at transport facilities, garbage collectors, police and other indispensable elements of society. They deserve more respect.
The nerve-racking spread of COVID-19 is forcing the nation to reset its disease prevention measures from the bottom up. It is also an opportunity to push the central and local governments to set aside their differences of political affiliation and work closely to contain the pandemic.
In this battle, “no one is an outsider,” as the saying goes.
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