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On April 23rd 2003, Taipei sealed off 1000 people into the two buildings of Taipei's Heping Hospital (和平醫院 right next to where I live). 57 medical workers were infected and 7 died. Among the patients, 97 were infected, 24 died, including one who committed suicide.
A thread.
A thread.
The incident is primarily remembered today as the reason why Taiwan was so well prepared for COVID-19. That is certainly the case, but after spending the day learning about this incident, I think the incident still has more to teach both Taiwan and the world.
Let's start with what Taiwan did seem to learn from the incident. First is the need for a coordinated pandemic response from the central government. The city government's response under Mayor Ma was woefully insufficient, as was the hospital's own handling of the incident.
They learned the need for contact tracing, quarantine procedures, and better protective equipment. It also seems to me that it also created a strong political desire and willingness to avoid strict lockdowns and rely on other measures instead.
One of the ironies of the post-SARS response is that the government carefully studied the pandemic response procedures of America's CDC. Trump would dismantle the group responsible for developing this playbook in 2018, leaving American unprepared.
Secondly, we can see some lessons from this incident that the world should have learned but didn't. For instance, Taiwan's over-reliance on WHO guidelines for defining who was a SARS victim initially led to some people as being misclassified.
And, as America would do under COVID-19, frontline workers were hailed as "heroes" while not being provided with the supplies or support that they needed.
Third, the incident exposes some deep problems with Taiwan's institutional culture and medical care system that have not yet been resolved. The top-down decision making system meant that few listened to the nurses who took the brunt of the burden.
Focus on profits and just-in-time efficiency meant that the hospital was unprepared. And outsourcing meant that many workers were not seen as part of the hospital.
For this thread, I drew primarily on two articles and a documentary film. The articles are:
The SARS Doctors: How Three Doctors Remember Taiwan's Worst Quarantine https://www.twreporter.org/a/sars-memories-life-under-quarantine-in-heping-hospital-english
The SARS Doctors: How Three Doctors Remember Taiwan's Worst Quarantine https://www.twreporter.org/a/sars-memories-life-under-quarantine-in-heping-hospital-english
Taiwan in Time: Remembering the SARS lockdown https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2020/04/19/2003734881
The film is "Hoping Storm:How SARS went out of control in Hoping hospital" (2003) directed by Martin Ku. (English subtitles available)
There are many heart-wrenching stories here that I didn’t cover. I hope everyone can take some time to watch the film and read the articles to learn more about Taiwan's experience with SARS.
fin.
fin.
I wanted to make one point clearer: While Taiwan did learn some important lessons from SARS, some things (institutional culture, neoliberal hospital management, etc.) still hasn't changed much. This echoes my earlier discussion with @royngerng who was making similar points
