Expat Perspective: Covid-19 & Taiwan

During the first week of our four week Lunar New Year holiday, I first saw the word coronavirus in a random CNN headline that was embedded halfway down the international page. We were in Taipei at the time for a four-day staycation, and the news of a mysterious and troublesome virus in China instantly caught my attention. That night, I went to bed in our airbnb with a pit in my stomach. 

To be honest, it has not gone away since.

That was January 21, 2020. 

Note: All of these pictures are of the things we have gotten to do while the rest of the world has been locked away in their homes thanks to Taiwan's reaction to Covid-19.

We ended up leaving Taipei a day early to head back to Hsinchu City, where we live. We did this for a few reasons. First, everyone was panic buying masks in Taiwan, and we only knew where to get them in our hometown. We actually really needed them because they were a requirement for our daughter's preschool long before Covid-19 was ever a thing. If we couldn't get masks for her, she would not be able to attend preschool. Second, we relied on the metro to get around Taipei, and after hearing of this virus, we did not really feel safe doing so with our 2-year-old daughter, especially after seeing numerous people who appeared very ill with some flu-like virus on the trains. Third, we were supposed to leave for Australia within days of our Taipei staycation ending, and we seriously needed to figure out whether we would go or not, and if not, start trying to get refunds. 

I will never forget the shock I felt upon arriving at the pharmacy in our hometown and seeing empty shelf after empty shelf where the children's face masks used to be. Even though we thought we were being proactive, we completely missed the boat. It took Sean hours of scouring store after store, even into the next county over, to find some packs of children's face masks. In the end, it was just enough to get us through until two generous benefactors gave us 50 masks each for our daughter Ruby to use at her preschool. 

As the bond between China and Taiwan runs deep, our local friends shared with us videos that their families and friends from within Wuhan and other locations in China shared with them. The videos and images shocked us and frightened us. We very quickly decided to cancel our trip to Australia because there was just no way we would risk exposing our daughter to the virus whose effects we so clearly saw in the videos and images shared with us by our local friends and colleague-- people literally falling over dead in the streets, hospital corridors literally lined with dead body after dead body after dead body, and worst of all, multiple dead toddlers being zipped up in an adult-sized body bag. 

Honestly, the imagery still makes me sick to my stomach four months later. 

The same day we returned from Taipei, we cleared out our backroom to use as a storage space. I collected rice, pasta, crackers, breads, instant noodle, peanut butter & jelly, beans, meats, frozen veg, dried fruit, shelf milk, and nuts. Sean got us a huge collection of water. We bought formula, diapers, wipes, baby wash, dish soap, laundry soap, and yes, toilet paper and paper towels. Our logic was this: if people living in Wuhan could suddenly wake up one morning literally locked in their homes, that could happen to us, too. We have expat friends in China who woke up all of a sudden locked in their home. As foreigners, even in a country as wonderful as Taiwan, we felt immensely vulnerable and nervous about what was coming, so we made preparations so that if all of a sudden we too would be on lockdown, at least we had a plan and had what we needed. We even made an evacuation plan; we decided at what point exactly--which was based on the embassy's updates-- we would call it quits and leave Taiwan for the United States. We even had a Plan A, B, C, and D for what would happen to our beloved dog in that circumstance. 

To say it was a very scary and stressful time would be a vast understatement. 

By late January, the waiting game started. At this point in time, people were being really dumb in just about every part of the world thinking that there was some imaginary force field that would protect them from Covid-19. We were very dismayed at our friends and relatives who suggested this was nothing but a hoax or flu and that warm weather would kill it (seriously, WTF guys?!). Despite the writing on the wall, the WHO still hadn't called Covid-19 a pandemic, yet. 

In early February, it was announced that the start of our second semester was postponed by two weeks. This was a big deal. The Taiwanese government hardly ever cancels school. A typhoon could blow into town, and the schools will remain open. We consumed the relatively few English-based Taiwanese news sources way more than was healthy to try to understand what was happening on our beautiful, little island. 

To be frank, both Sean and I were sure that Covid-19 would spread to Taiwan due to the timing: Lunar New Year. During this time, many people move in between the two countries and all over the world to travel and celebrate with their families. We could not foresee a scenario in which Taiwan would not be overwhelmed by this, especially as we watched our neighboring countries' such as South Korea and Japan tallies increase daily. 

However, we were wrong. 

Fast forward four months, and here we are today: May 24, 2020. 

The past four months did not unfold as we predicted. Instead, the complete opposite happened. Taiwan, the rock star it is, did what we thought was impossible. It dodged the bullet. None of this was luck. It was due to early & precise action, competent & compelling government, and science-driven, fact-based policies. 

Over the past four months, we have only had exactly 441 Covid-19 cases and, sadly, 7 deaths. Taiwan has not had a lockdown of any kind. We can go to playgrounds, parks, restaurants, shopping malls, schools, movie theaters, the metro, the train, and on and on. 

That does not mean things have not changed because they have. 

For a long time, everyone wore masks everywhere. There was no law stating you had to. People just did because it was common sense. Masks protect everyone. We were lucky because Ruby was used to wearing them and liked wearing them due to her preschool's strict illness prevention policies. There are temperature monitors set up at the entrance to every public place: the bank, the mall, school. 

My job also changed. 

Every morning, I take 60 kids' temperatures. I disinfect their hands. They disinfect our entire classroom daily with bleach. We all wear surgical masks. Our school has a quarantine tent set up; I had to escort one of my students there last Friday due to a fever caught during our temperature checks.

Further, we had to cancel our trips to Australia and Japan. Who knows when it will be a thing again to travel just for the fun and adventure that comes with it. We also had to cancel our trip to go home over summer. Now, we have no idea when we will get to see our families and friends again. 

We are able to live our lives with as much normalcy as possible because everyone acknowledges that a little inconvenience is so much better than the alternative, which is sickness and death and lockdown. There is a collective understanding here that even if I don't die, even if my husband doesn't die, even if my kid doesn't die, even if my parents don't die, even if my brother doesn't die, the person who does die or get really sick from Covid-19 will be someone's spouse or child or parent or sibling, and if we can prevent that person from dying or suffering by being inconvenienced, it is worth it to wear masks and take common sense precautions. 

I have said again and again how civilized Taiwan is compared to America. You can see it with healthcare. With homelessness. With poverty. With violence. And with Covid-19. 

Sean and I laugh every once in a while thinking about how we concocted plans to flee Taiwan to go to America, somehow thinking we would be safer there. In the end, I am so glad we listened to our guts and stayed put. While we didn't think Taiwan would escape Covid-19 the way it has, I think our guts knew from our past experiences that we are way better off here than in the United States. In almost every other measure to date regarding our health, our happiness, our safety, our finances, and our job satisfaction, that has always been true. Always. For the past 7 years and counting. 

Jiayou, Taiwan. Jiayou.