The Age
Date: April 12, 2020
By: Eryk Bagshaw

The expert responsible for suppressing the coronavirus in Taiwan says the superpower cannot be trusted, is influencing the World Health Organisation, and countries such as Australia must remain a step ahead of Beijing.

"We have had respiratory nursing homes for maybe 10 years": Taiwan's Professor Su Ih-Jen.CREDIT:AP

Professor Ih-Jen Su began annual rehearsals of a possible pandemic from China almost two decades ago after SARS killed more than 20 per cent of people it infected in Taiwan.

The director of infectious diseases at Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes established dedicated respiratory nursing homes with thousands of ventilators and increased intensive care capacity to 10,000 beds, four times the size of Australia's capacity even though the two have roughly the same population.

Taiwan has recorded 385 cases of COVID-19 to Australia's 6314. It began scrutinising and quarantining passengers on flights from Wuhan and Guangdong in December, implemented travel bans on China and introduced strict social-distancing measures in January.

In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age from Taipei, Professor Su said Taiwan had always kept a step ahead of the information from China.    [FULL  STORY]