KMT copying China
The COVID-19 pandemic has become severe in Taiwan. As the number of confirmed cases continues to rise in Taipei and New Taipei City, hospitals are slowly moving toward maximum capacity.
To address the situation, some pan-blue camp politicians and media personalities have proposed building mobile field hospitals.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who also heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said that such efforts are not needed at this time.
In Chinese field hospitals, for example, positive but asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and people with mild symptoms are kept in the same open space without strict isolation and infection prevention equipment.
This often causes cross transmission between patients, making the situation more complex and harder to control.
In the CECC’s approach, each patient has their own room at local quarantine centers, where they are treated by professional medical teams.
This is likely to prevent cross transmission among them, while doctors offer more active treatment of positive cases.
The preventive approach suggested by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is just a copy of the Chinese approach. Since last year, the party has urged the government to launch widespread testing for COVID-19 and import Chinese-made vaccines.
Now it is calling for the construction of Chinese-style field hospitals.
Whatever Beijing does, the KMT is quick to praise, while ignoring the health of Taiwanese. Is it trying to lower the efficiency of the nation’s disease prevention?
The CECC is comprised of medical experts whose every decision is based on their professional evaluation. They have led the nation through challenge after challenge during the pandemic.
However, all foreign methods mentioned by the KMT are negative examples that would not help tackle the pandemic.
KMT politicians and media personalities should make an assessment before they start spouting slogans, and they should not use the safety of Taiwanese as a political bargaining chip. It is quite obvious that their suggestion to copy the Chinese approach does not work.
Lin Shang-yi
Kaohsiung
Teahouses in Wanhua
An outbreak of COVID-19 linked to a certain kind of teahouse in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華) has drawn attention to Taiwan’s hidden sex industry.
Since the sex industry is a business that will never subside, serious consideration should be given to legalization in Taiwan. A controlled sex business is safer for the establishment, sex workers and clients.
Healthcare is a big concern and must be addressed. Access to proper healthcare and requiring regular checkups would reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Another consideration is the location of these establishments in residential neighborhoods versus in business districts. These are serious issues that need to be resolved. Regulation is long overdue and the government should take immediate action.
Anna Chang
Taipei
Children at home
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, my husband’s workplace last week started implementing staggered hours, requiring him to continue to go to work. I had to take a few days off to stay home and look after our two children.
A new laptop computer and an older one allowed both children to attend their online classes. I had to receive messages from their teachers, supervise their distance learning and homework, prepare their lunch, and go shopping.
The children were happy to have time off school and did not pay full attention during their online classes. It is more tiring for their parents, but nothing compared with the government and healthcare workers who are wrestling with the COVID-19 outbreak.
This week is my husband’s turn to work from home while watching over the children, so I have passed my experience from last week on to him.
After staring at the screen for a 50-minute class, you must force them to rest their eyes, or they will get increasingly nearsighted. When they have their online physical education lessons, remember to join in. It will make you more confident about getting through the outbreak.
Lin Chia-yu
New Taipei City
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
Next week, the nation is to celebrate the Lunar New Year break. Unfortunately, cold winds are a-blowing, literally and figuratively. The Central Weather Administration has warned of an approaching cold air mass, while obstinate winds of chaos eddy around the Legislative Yuan. English theologian Thomas Fuller optimistically pointed out in 1650 that “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” We could paraphrase by saying the coldest days are just before the renewed hope of spring. However, one must temper any optimism about the damage being done in the legislature by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), under
To our readers: Due to the Lunar New Year holiday, from Sunday, Jan. 26, through Sunday, Feb. 2, the Taipei Times will have a reduced format without our regular editorials and opinion pieces. From Tuesday to Saturday the paper will not be delivered to subscribers, but will be available for purchase at convenience stores. Subscribers will receive the editions they missed once normal distribution resumes on Sunday, Feb. 2. The paper returns to its usual format on Monday, Feb. 3, when our regular editorials and opinion pieces will also be resumed.
Young Taiwanese are consuming an increasing amount of Chinese content on TikTok, causing them to have more favorable views of China, a Financial Times report cited Taiwanese social scientists and politicians as saying. Taiwanese are being exposed to disinformation of a political nature from China, even when using TikTok to view entertainment-related content, the article published on Friday last week said. Fewer young people identify as “Taiwanese” (as opposed to “Chinese”) compared with past years, it wrote, citing the results of a survey last year by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation. Nevertheless, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would be hard-pressed
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