As Taiwan clearly showed, antidote to virus is freedom

If you want to see the difference between how a totalitarian and a free Chinese society handles a public health emergency, just contrast the actions of the People’s Republic with those of the Republic of China, Taiwan. One is responsible for unleashing a contagion that has infected more than 2 million people; the other has all but defeated the virus.

Taiwan should have seen the second-largest outbreak of COVID-19 in the world, according to an analysis published in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association. The island is 81 miles off the coast of China, had 2.7 million visitors from the mainland last year and has about 1.25 million citizens who either reside in or work in China. Yet Taiwan has seen only six people die of COVID-19 out of a total of 393 confirmed cases. Even more amazing, 338 of those cases were individuals infected abroad. In other words, Taiwan has seen 55 local infections, which means it has effectively eliminated community transmission. Earlier this week, the government reported zero new COVID-19 cases in Taiwan.

What is most impressive is that Taiwan has done all this without ordering its population to shelter or shutting down schools, restaurants, stores and other businesses. As a result, Taiwan’s economy is not experiencing the same economic damage as countries locked down.

So how did Taiwan succeed where Beijing failed? According to the JAMA study, Taiwan took actions to identify and isolate those who either had the virus or came into contact with those who did.

First, Taiwan acted fast. On Dec. 31, while Beijing was still denying the virus was capable of human transmission, Taiwanese officials began boarding planes arriving from Wuhan to identify and isolate passengers with fever or pneumonia before they could deplane. On Jan. 5, they denied entry to any individual who had traveled to Wuhan in the past 14 days and had a fever or respiratory symptoms. On Jan. 30, the government expanded its surveillance system to cover all travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macao. On Feb. 6, all international cruise ships were banned. On Feb. 14, an entry quarantine system was implemented that required all travelers to complete electronic health declarations.

Anyone identified as high risk was placed under 14-day home quarantine and monitored electronically through their mobile phones.

Second, the government acted with complete transparency. Taiwan’s vice president delivered regular briefings and public service announcements updating people on the mitigation efforts. The government set up a coronavirus hotline and sought out those with respiratory symptoms. Taiwanese officials also set price limits to prevent the hoarding of masks, and mobilized Taiwan’s military to help increase mask production.

Contrast this with the actions of the Chinese Communists, who punished doctors who tried to sound the alarm about the disease, ordered them to destroy virus samples and lied to the world.

This pandemic has provided us with a clinical trial in the healing power of freedom. We can now compare two control groups in the form of two Chinese societies — one free and democratic, the other under the grip of a brutal dictatorship. Totalitarian China has not only been ravaged by the virus but has also spread the contagion to our shores. Free China has defeated it. The lesson is clear: COVID-19 grew in the cesspool of Chinese Communist tyranny. The antidote to the coronavirus is freedom.