An example to follow: Taiwan won against COVID-19 at the expense of an effective state

Journalist Pavel Pryanikov writes in his blog on the example of an island state how it is actually possible and necessary to deal with a pandemic :

“I read in the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration report about the Taiwanese experience in the fight against Covid - probably the most successful in the world. By his example, you understand what an effective police state is. Despite the geographical proximity and high intensity of contacts with mainland China (hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese work in mainland China, which means a huge number of flights between the island and the continent), the Taiwanese authorities managed to suppress the COVID-19 epidemic in the bud. As of May 3, 2020, a total of 432 cases of coronavirus infection were recorded in 23 millionth Taiwan, and the total number of deaths was 6. The main stages of the fight against Covid were as follows:

- The Taiwanese government initially acted in advance and began to take measures at the end of December 2019, as soon as it became known about the first cases of illness of unknown origin in Wuhan, China. The Emergency Control Epidemic Command Center was immediately established,

- Already in December, mass control of aircraft passengers departing from Wuhan was started. January 23 issued an order banning entry into Taiwan. Two days later, Taiwanese were forbidden to travel to mainland China.

- In January, a ban was imposed on the export of medical masks. In a short time, the level of production of masks reached 10 million pieces per day (with 23 million of the population!).

- Health insurance and immigration agencies have created a 14-day travel history of local and foreign residents. Persons who were quarantined fell under close control of the authorities, and their phones were placed under surveillance so that it was possible to monitor whether such a person left his place of residence. For violation of quarantine - a fine of 3 thousand dollars.

- A quick and mass testing system was introduced. - There was no general quarantine in the country, nor did mass encoding with QR_codes. “Taiwan’s GDP in the first quarter of 2020 increased by 1.6% - as the country did not stop the economy, like other states ..."

True, the readers of this post did not agree with the author in their assessment of Taiwan:

“Quarantine was not introduced in the country. This is an example of an effective police state ”Eeee, but let’s do one thing, huh ?! Either quarantine, which is police, or there is no quarantine, as well as a medical accident, but then this is not a police state in any way. Taiwan is not an example of a police state, it is an example of an effective state ...

- Taiwan is a democratic state where there is an effective government that protects the population. Unlike the corrupt police of Russia. Under democracy, there is an inefficient executive branch. It is effective. And someone is just lucky: they managed to close before the mass delivery of the infection. Like Greece.

- An effective, but quite democratic state. The last presidential and parliamentary elections in Taiwan are January 11 this year, just in the period between the first cases in Wuhan and the import of coronavirus into Taiwan.