Читать книгу COVID-19 and Risk - Alaszewski Andy - Страница 16

The majority of countries in the western Pacific Rim framed COVID-​19 in terms of SARS. Most of these countries had had direct experience of the 2003 SARS outbreak, and the new disease from China fitted into this pattern.

Countries which framed COVID-​19 as a new form of SARS concentrated on identifying and controlling the virus. This framing can be seen in Taiwan’s rapid response to emerging news from China of a pneumonia of unknown origins. Following the SARS outbreak, Taiwan created a National Health Command Centre to coordinate responses to the outbreak of new infectious disease and Taiwan’s Vice President Chen Chien-​jen was a doctor with a Doctor of Science degree in epidemiology and human genetics (John Hopkins University, 2020a). When the WHO received notification on 31 December 2019 of cases of pneumonia of unknown origins in Wuhan, China, Taiwanese officials took immediate action. They focused on the virus, identifying and isolating individuals who might be infected. They immediately started boarding all flights from Wuhan to check for symptoms of respiratory infection and isolated passengers with such symptoms. By 5 January, they had expanded surveillance to include all passengers who had travelled from Wuhan in the previous 14 days. Anyone with symptoms was tested for 26 viruses including SARS and was quarantined at home or in hospital. Using the national database of citizens plus the database of foreigners’ entry cards, the Taiwanese authorities rapidly developed a sophisticated system which could provide rapid immigration clearance for those travellers who presented minimal risk and formed a way of keeping track of and preventing the spread of the virus (Wang et al, 2020).