I recently attended a virtual business meeting with a colleague in Taiwan. During the chitchat prior to starting the meeting we were discussing COVID-19 and its impacts in our countries. I asked him how things were going in Taiwan, and he responded that things were “mostly normal,” everyone was wearing masks in public but going about their business.
He asked me why the U.S. didn’t believe masks were useful in preventing the virus spread, and I told him that I really didn’t understand why U.S. citizens had such a hard time believing the science on this, and asked him what the Taiwanese thought about the situation in the U.S. He stated most people there felt very sorry for the U.S. and had a hard time believing our actions.
Now to give some context to the differences between us. Taiwan has had about 550 confirmed cases of the virus and seven deaths in a population of almost 24 million people (tiny impact). The U.S. has had over 8.5 million confirmed cases and 225,000 deaths with a population of 330 million people (2 percent illness rate).
The difference here is Taiwanese people have a government that cares about them and the science about COVID-19. Wish I could say the same of our country.
