Opinion | Cultural and digital strengths in Taiwan’s coronavirus response hold lessons for struggling US

Name: Coronavirus: How did Taiwan keep local Covid-19 transmissions to zero for over 200 days?
Uploaded: 2021-01-07T01:15:11.000Z
Duration: 3 min 42 s
Description: Coronavirus: How did Taiwan keep local Covid-19 transmissions to zero for over 200 days?

Taiwan has assembled one of the world’s best pandemic responses through a robust digital health care system, swift control measures and a culture of compliance

In contrast, the US response has been plagued with chaotic government messaging, attacks on science, suspicion of authorities and a focus on individual freedoms

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus travel around Taipei on May 18. Well-established practices such as wearing masks, transparency and trust in science have helped Taiwan assemble one of the world’s must successful Covid-19 pandemic responses. Photo: AP

Patricia Pan Connor

Published: 9:15am, 7 Jan 2021Updated: 9:25am, 7 Jan 2021

My mother was born in mainland China in 1945 but fled with her family to Taiwan in 1947 during the civil war between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. Growing up in American suburbia, I thought her matter-of-fact, unemotional views were strange.

I used to call her “the computer” because her every decision was completely governed by facts and uninfluenced by feelings. It was frustrating because it meant she could never empathise with my American teenage wants, dismissing them as nonsense.

Today, when I compare Taiwan’s success in containing Covid-19 to our abysmal failure in the United States, it is an “a-ha” moment of sorts. Taiwan beat Covid-19 because of its culture. America is struggling in the battle against the pandemic because of ours.

Since the pandemic began, Taiwan has had 817 cases of Covid-19 and only seven deaths. The US, by contrast, has had 21 million cases and more than 350,000 deaths. To put this in perspective, Taiwan has had 0.03 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to 108 deaths per 100,000 people in the US.

While Taiwan benefits from being smaller and more isolated, it is also situated less than 160km from mainland China, where more than 1 million Taiwanese live and work. People travel back and forth between the mainland and Taiwan regularly and in great numbers.

03:42

Coronavirus: How did Taiwan keep local Covid-19 transmissions to zero for over 200 days?

Because of its proximity, Taiwan is highly susceptible to viruses originating in mainland China. Experience from the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak prompted the Taiwanese to adopt drastic prevention measures early in this pandemic to stave off infections. These measures relied heavily on sharing personal health information and compliance.