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The Taiwan team of 23.8 million has had a world-leading response to Covid-19 so far with only 487 cases, 462 of which have recovered and seven deaths to date since the global pandemic began.
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Audrey Tang has been part of the world’s leading pandemic efforts in Taiwan. Source: Q + A
The small island nation east of China has turned to technology in its fight against the virus, with government ministers like Audrey Tang at the helm.
Tang, who identifies as non-binary, became a minister after a career in computer programming, including time on the other side of the law as a former hacker.
Tang told TVNZ1’s Q + A that while computers and cell phones have been important, there were other pieces of technology that have been vital to the national Covid-19 fight thus far.
“The most important piece of technology is, of course, the soap: hand sanitization,” Tang said.
But following very closely is the idea that everyone wears masks. We have models that show that if three-quarters of people wear masks all day, our value will be less than one, which means that the virus will not spread in the community.
“So we started the mask process in February and in April more than 95 percent of the population had access to medical masks.”
Tang said Taiwan also has a quarantine restriction on its border, as does New Zealand, where arriving people must isolate themselves for 14 days. But on top of that, they also have a small stipend that they pay to encourage those affected to quarantine.
But one of the biggest breakthroughs Taiwan has made has been the use of cell phone towers to monitor self-isolating people.
Tang explained that when someone is quarantined in Taiwan, their cell phone is used almost like an electronic locating device and whenever the phone leaves a 50 meter radius from a nearby tower, local authorities are informed to take measurements.
“An SMS is sent to the local house managers and police,” Tang said.
“If that person really breaks the quarantine, instead of the US $ 33 stipend, they will pay us 1000 times more in a fine so that people don’t break the quarantine.”
And for the rare cases where someone doesn’t own a cell phone or tries to circumvent the system by leaving it behind when they choose to break the quarantine, Tang said protocols have been put in place.
“If their mobile phones stay in the same place for too long, we send them an SMS to check if they feel good or if they are asleep.
“But if they don’t pick up the phone or don’t answer for a while, then we know they’re not near their phones.”
But the technology not only stops the spread of Covid-19 in Taiwan, it also keeps misinformation at bay, with officials opting for a “humor over rumor” strategy that prompted the government to use funny images and memes to spread. the facts.
“We found that outrage spread by a value of 3, which means that every hour on average one person shared misinformation with three people on social media, so if we could do something with a higher value then we could fight misinformation by making people laugh. “
An example included the Prime Minister himself.
“By literally becoming the butt of the joke, everyone laughed at it and once you laugh at it, they’ll be calm and read [the information]. “
Q + A asked Tang what advice they would give to policy makers in New Zealand, given that in contrast Kiwis only have to wear masks on public transport starting tomorrow and the contact tracing app being used. here it is voluntary.
Tang said that one of the biggest differences to take into account right away was the perception of the masks in the two small nations.
“The way we implemented the wearing of masks was actually by popular demand,” Tang said.
“If you ask random people on the street in Taiwan… people wore masks anyway.
“You wear a mask to protect yourself from your own unwashed hands. If you forget to wash your hands, your mask protects you. “
