‘I think we were the front-runner of alertness’

Irish Times
Date: April 19,m 2020
By: Shane Stokes

In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers at John Hopkins University predicted that Taiwan would be one of the countries most affected by the virus. It is located just 130km from China, saw more than 400,000 of its 24 million citizens working there last year, and had almost three million Chinese visitors in 2019.

However, Taiwan has defied those expectations.

By the middle of April, Taiwan had still only reported 400 Covid-19 cases, most of which were imported. And just six deaths.

So what did Taiwan do so correctly? Prof Peter Chang is one of the most experienced doctors in Taiwan. Harvard-educated, he was a visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health, a professor at Taipei Medical University and Kaohsiung Medical University, senior medical advisor to the National Taipei Hospital and now adjunct professor in Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. He has been an adviser to the ministry of health and has been a health diplomat for the World Health Organisation and the European Union. He also serves as an ombudsman in Taiwan.   [FULL  STORY]