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1.轉錄網址︰

https://reurl.cc/EnvxG0

2.轉錄來源︰

The Diplomat

3.轉錄內容︰

整段翻好累 我翻關鍵段就好惹
自己往下滑 感謝谷歌翻譯大神

During the pandemic, Taiwan went about business as usual. Schools were open, con
certs were playing, theaters were packed. Restaurants were bustling, the economy
 was booming, and expatriates and overseas Taiwanese flooded into the island. Ta
iwan was among a group of fortunate countries, including Australia, New Zealand,
 Vietnam, and Singapore, whose citizens went about business as usual as tight bo
rders, strict quarantine rules, and excellent contract tracing kept the virus at
 bay.

That enviable routine came to an end in mid-May 2021 when an outbreak of COVID-1
9 transmission upended everyday life. Yet, COVID-19 cases have fallen significan
tly in recent days. New cases per day have fallen from 535 on May 17 to an avera
ge of fewer than 20 in the past seven days. On July 26, Taiwan reported a new lo
w of 10 cases of community transmission.

How did Taiwan suppress this wave of COVID-19 transmission, even as Australia, V
ietnam, and Singapore are struggling with an uptick of the virus?

First, Taiwan doubled down on longstanding strategies of masking, quarantine mea
sures, and contact tracing. Long before this wave, as early as April 2020, Taiwa
n had already instituted mask mandates on public transportation. The government
extended the mask mandate to everybody on the island and required its citizens t
o wear a mask outside their home.

Moreover, Taiwan extended its quarantine facilities for those entering the count
ry from abroad to domestic COVID-19 patients. Many local governments began provi
ding options for anyone testing positive to quarantine in a government-provided
hotel or facility. The provision of quarantine facilities significantly reduced
transmission of the virus within the family, thus reducing the number of cases i
n the community.

Democratic Taiwan, in its attempt to maintain civil liberties, eschewed the more
 invasive phone-based surveillance technology used by countries in the region. I
nstead, contact tracers leveraged the records of Taiwanese businesses who encour
aged their patrons to leave their contacts either by writing them down on a piec
e of paper or scanning a business-provided QR code from an app from their phones
. While these records were imperfect, they still managed to reduce transmission
rates in conjunction with universal masking and enhanced quarantine measures whi
le maintaining a high level of civil liberties.

Second, the Taiwanese government was willing to listen to critics and change its
 policies in fighting the pandemic. Taiwan emphasizes surface and droplet-based
transmission of COVID-19 over the global consensus that the virus could be trans
mitted through aerosols in poorly ventilated indoor spaces. Taiwanese authoritie
s were reluctant to ban indoor dining in the early days of the outbreak, as they
 felt that measures such as social distancing and plexiglass installation would
prevent transmission. However, after growing intervention from its diaspora and
local expatriates who urged the government to restrict indoor activities, many l
ocal governments eventually banned indoor dining and restricting indoor activiti
es. Incidentally, the mayor of the southern port city of Kaohsiung led the way i
n limiting indoor dining. His early move became critical in preventing any sprea
d of the virus in Kaohsiung from Taipei and New Taipei City, which had substanti
al community transmission. Some local governments have continued to ban indoor d
ining partly for fear of criticism from voters, even though such a ban was lifte
d recently by the central government as cases fell. Finally, the ruling DPP gove
rnment supported the high-profile purchase of BioNTech vaccines from Germany via
 a mainland Chinese company by a former presidential hopeful in the rival Chines
e Nationalist Party (KMT) after segments of the Taiwanese population expressed i
nterest in obtaining those vaccines.

Third, the Taiwanese people actively sought accountability from politicians in f
ighting the pandemic. Fighting diseases became a marker for good governance in T
aiwan’s modern history, beginning from the colonial period, where Japanese medi
cal officers sought to eradicate infectious diseases to benefit the colonizers,
to the more recent period, where Taiwanese health experts criticized politicians
 for being too slow and unprepared in dealing with the outbreak of the SARS viru
s in 2003.

In today’s context, the mayor of Taiwan, Ko Wen-je, has been chastised by media
 personalities, politicians, and voters for his relatively poor performance in f
ighting the outbreak. They criticized Ko for not taking contact tracing and test
ing seriously enough to contain localized outbreaks at markets, for failing to e
stablish a proper vaccine distribution system, and pushing the blame for the per
sistent community transmission on the ground to anyone but himself. Elected as a
 populist, the physician-turned-mayor saw his approval numbers for pandemic cont
rol falling almost 7 percentage points from June to July 2021, the most signific
ant fall among all mayors. Ongoing criticism has spurred Ko to accept the help o
f medical experts from the CDC reluctantly. They have sought to improve anti-pan
demic efforts on the ground with the assistance of the vice mayor of Taipei.



Fourth, Taiwan’s media played an understated role in fighting the pandemic. Tai
wan’s free-wheeling media, which traces its origins to the democratization of t
he media landscape in the 1990s, competed to provide the latest information on f
ighting COVID-19 around the clock. Despite some outlets promoting vaccine hesita
ncy through emphasizing alleged cases of deaths associated with WHO-approved vac
cines, most television stations have modeled good behaviors in their broadcasts.
 Almost all variety shows and news programs have moved online or insisted that a
ll guests and hosts wear masks and socially distance. These measures reflected t
he seriousness of the Taiwanese media in fighting the pandemic and modeling appr
opriate behaviors for their viewers, irrespective of their political leanings.

Fifth, Taiwan reaped the goodwill it sowed in the early days of pandemics. Taiwa
n donated more than 51 million face masks to countries worldwide last year. Reci
pient countries, in return, have gifted Taiwan precious vaccines during this out
break, which the country struggled to obtain due to geopolitical reasons. Japan
has given Taiwan more than 3.3 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, and the Un
ited States has delivered 2.5 million doses of Moderna vaccines to Taiwan in the
 last two months. Lithuania, Slovenia, and Czechia have also pledged tens of tho
usands of vaccines to Taiwan. With the vaccines it purchased from COVAX and the
United States, Taiwan has inoculated 28 percent of its population with one dose
of vaccine, a considerable leap from the 1 percent of the population before the
most recent outbreak.

Taiwan’s success may not last, given the virulent Delta variant may breach Taiw
an’s borders as it did in Australia, Vietnam, Singapore, and elsewhere. But its
 experiences, both near and far, should put the country in good stead in dealing
 with future outbreaks. Global health experts should consider how Taiwan has suc
cessfully fought COVID-19 as a democracy, particularly in its incremental improv
ements on testing, tracing, and isolation without significantly compromising fun
damental freedoms and civil liberties.

Despite criticism from the opposition party, the government’s willingness to sh
are its homegrown vaccine, developed with the assistance of the U.S. National In
stitutes of Health, has revealed Taiwan’s desire to be a responsible member of
the global health community. Taiwan’s generosity in sharing masks, resources, a
nd expertise reveals the urgency for Taiwan to be given an observer status in th
e World Health Assembly. Taiwan can help, and the international health community
 should facilitate such assistance in order to end the global pandemic.



4.附註、心得、想法︰
我跟你說啦
外交家一定是野雞雜誌
綠共側翼
怎摸可以批評我家阿北？
阿北支持度第一名內
雖然老人覆蓋率不高
但我悶打很多人內
你看我們酒吧 甜點店 遊民都打惹
有哪個縣市能做到像我們這樣
嘻嘻

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