Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) last week sketched a chart showing projected numbers of SARS-CoV-2 infections in an attempt to explain his preferred pandemic-prevention strategy.
The chart was in fact straight from the pages of a public health textbook, first shown by the Central Epidemic Command Center two years ago at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has since formed the basis of the government’s pandemic prevention plans. It was also used by Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) to illustrate his city’s approach to the pandemic.
Whether to pursue a policy of “zero COVID-19” or live with the virus is a question that China is dealing with. It has become an ideological struggle between supporters of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and his rivals in the run-up to the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Party Congress later this year.
However, the pandemic prevention measures pursued in Taiwan over the past two years have never been about achieving zero cases at all costs. They have been largely aimed at keeping the virus under control and moving toward a form of herd immunity, which is essentially a scientific way of saying “living with the virus.”
At the start of the pandemic, Taiwan was faced with a virulent disease that produces severe symptoms. There was no vaccine, a lack of medical supplies, an insufficient supply of surgical masks and sanitizing products, and limited numbers of hospital beds. During this time, the country was still trying to figure out the virus’ transmission path.
The objective in the pandemic response back then was to prevent an explosion in the number of severe cases from collapsing the health system, which would make us lose control of the virus.
For this reason, it was thought proportionate to try to reduce the speed of virus transmission, even if this goal came at a relatively high social cost, so that the medical system would have the capacity to cope with severe cases. It would buy time until a vaccine was developed and distributed, and allow for hope that the virus might mutate into a weaker strain that would cause less severe symptoms.
With these conditions in place, the country could then hope to achieve some form of herd immunity.
Today, Taiwan has adequate vaccine coverage. The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 is more easily transmitted, but it largely produces no or less severe symptoms. The medical system is fairly stable.
The question therefore becomes whether Taiwan needs to maintain the social costs of pandemic restrictions to control the virus. The country has reached the point where people can once more discuss how best to further refine our allocation of resources and our control measures. In public administration, policy support measures are the goals and means of coordination in key areas to achieve the overall strategy and objectives.
Therefore, in the process of fighting the pandemic, these measures have to take into account the circumstances at any given point in time, including the capacity of the medical system, the corresponding social costs and the policy tools at hand to meet objectives and prioritize resource allocation.
As part of the policy discussion, the government needs to explain the entire policy framework and connections in a structured way, and to provide key data in a timely manner, such as the number of hospitalized patients that fully recover. The public needs to understand what the government is trying to achieve in its overall strategy, and how the results demonstrate success.
In this way, it can fend off critics who clamor for attention, and guide the nation out of the pandemic in the final stretch.
Shih Chia-liang is an adjunct assistant professor at National Chengchi University’s Department of Public Administration.
Translated by Paul Cooper
US$18.278 billion is a simple dollar figure; one that’s illustrative of the first Trump administration’s defense commitment to Taiwan. But what does Donald Trump care for money? During President Trump’s first term, the US defense department approved gross sales of “defense articles and services” to Taiwan of over US$18 billion. In September, the US-Taiwan Business Council compared Trump’s figure to the other four presidential administrations since 1993: President Clinton approved a total of US$8.702 billion from 1993 through 2000. President George W. Bush approved US$15.614 billion in eight years. This total would have been significantly greater had Taiwan’s Kuomintang-controlled Legislative Yuan been cooperative. During
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in recent days was the focus of the media due to his role in arranging a Chinese “student” group to visit Taiwan. While his team defends the visit as friendly, civilized and apolitical, the general impression is that it was a political stunt orchestrated as part of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda, as its members were mainly young communists or university graduates who speak of a future of a unified country. While Ma lived in Taiwan almost his entire life — except during his early childhood in Hong Kong and student years in the US —
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers on Monday unilaterally passed a preliminary review of proposed amendments to the Public Officers Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法) in just one minute, while Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, government officials and the media were locked out. The hasty and discourteous move — the doors of the Internal Administration Committee chamber were locked and sealed with plastic wrap before the preliminary review meeting began — was a great setback for Taiwan’s democracy. Without any legislative discussion or public witnesses, KMT Legislator Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩), the committee’s convener, began the meeting at 9am and announced passage of the
In response to a failure to understand the “good intentions” behind the use of the term “motherland,” a professor from China’s Fudan University recklessly claimed that Taiwan used to be a colony, so all it needs is a “good beating.” Such logic is risible. The Central Plains people in China were once colonized by the Mongolians, the Manchus and other foreign peoples — does that mean they also deserve a “good beating?” According to the professor, having been ruled by the Cheng Dynasty — named after its founder, Ming-loyalist Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功, also known as Koxinga) — as the Kingdom of Tungning,
RSS