your daily reminder that Taiwan, a nation of 23.8m people, has had a whopping total of seven (7) deaths due to COVID

some interesting things about Taiwan just to get a sense for what is possible in this world:

(1) the VP of Taiwan who served for the peak of the pandemic (his term ended in May) is an epidemiologist who was in charge of Taiwan's SARS response

if you wanna talk about academics who have Done Real Things, it's Chen Chien-jen, who helped build critical public health infrastructure for TW to respond to pandemics (e.g. building isolation wards, virus research labs), + instituting mandatory temp checks & widespread testing

(honestly this is part of my larger soapbox about how the Taiwan model is not getting enough play as an example of how to actually respond to pandemics effectively, but here we are)

(2) CAN WE ALSO TALK ABOUT HOW TAIWAN IS USING SPICY MEMES TO FIGHT MISINFORMATION??

Let's first set aside the fact that SO much of the cool stuff Taiwan is developing is led by a trans woman, a FOSS rockstar + self-proclaimed anarchist who managed digital infrastructure for the Sunflower Movement, where protestors occupied the Legislative Yuan for 24 days

(this is ABSOLUTELY an @audreyt stan account, by the way, also, LOTS more to say about student protesting in Taiwan, fuck the narrative about Asian countries as being "subservient" & "orderly" or whatever)

here is a delightful example of the ubiquitous shiba inu, Zongchai, who is now the face of safety guidelines in Taiwan:

here is a meme ft. the Premier of Taiwan, Su Tseng-chang, with his butt jiggling to encourage people not to panic-buy toilet paper (main title says "we only have one butt")

also, there are apps developed by the government to let you check IN REAL TIME which pharmacies have masks available (and projections on when they will be available next):

also...there are vending machines that dispense masks and it takes YOUR METRO CARD as the primary payment method (real numtot vibes, amirite)

see more: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/coronavirus-taipei-unveils-vending-machines-for-surgical-masks

so...y'all. We *currently live* in a world where all of this exists. It's not just about a better future, where these things *could* be possible somewhere down the line.

It's happening right now.

epidemiologist vice president also MADE A WEBINAR, y'all, to educate people on the coronavirus!!

it is available in both English and Chinese...*wait for it* BOTH WITH SUBTITLES

"but Crystal!! You're just idealizing Taiwan! There are so many problems there! Also, no one in the US *could have known* that this would happen!!"

u rite, Taiwan has its own problems, but pandemic response isn't really one of them.

The Taiwanese government knew how to respond to this...in 2009.

***2003. H1N1 was 2009, whoops.