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Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

reuters.com

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Re: Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

#51

Post by rootusrootus »

RivieraKid wrote: post #19
ShorsHammer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People love it. The amazing shift in online rhetoric that praises authoritarianism is scary. Imagine this being rolled out for the flu.

Of course they love it, the inconvenience it causes is nothing compared to the economic and health impacts of the virus.

The really strict lock-downs have only been happening for the last week. People love it because they imagine this is only going to last a few weeks. Tell them that in order to be effective we're going to need to stay shut down for a year or more. Then let's talk about how much people like it.

Re: Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

#52

Post by RaoulP »

bobbyd3 wrote: post #37
lifeformed wrote: post #32

I'm in Taiwan in day 6 of home quarantine right now. We get a call every morning to check up on our health. I don't mind it, it's a simple and effective method and it gives me confidence in the government and society, knowing that everyone is taking the situation seriously. Once I'm out of quarantine, I can feel comfortable being outside living a normal life, knowing that all known potential carriers are contained.

For instance... do you need a government issued ID to get a SIM card for a cell phone?

No, you don’t. As a tourist I could get a 30 day (unlimited data) SIM card with a phone number, over the counter.

I detailed my experience in another comment.

Re: Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

#53

Post by [deleted] »

alkonaut wrote: post #46
mmhsieh wrote: post #7

Taiwan doing this = effective. china doing this = creepy. however, probably necessary in both cases. perhaps a rhetorical cease-fire globally would benefit us all.

> Taiwan doing this = effective. china doing this = creepy That's the difference between a dictatorship and a democracy. You can have at least a little trust in a democracy to do the right thing when it does the necessary evil. This pandemic isn't a reason to take the pressure of china when it comes to human rights. Quite the opposite.

[deleted]

Re: Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

#54

Post by nerdponx »

mmhsieh wrote: post #7

Taiwan doing this = effective. china doing this = creepy. however, probably necessary in both cases. perhaps a rhetorical cease-fire globally would benefit us all.

It's creepy in Taiwan too. Maybe necessary in the short term, but how do you get the government to willingly relinquish this kind of control once the need has passed? They will just keep making up reasons to keep it going, and eventually it will just become normalized and nobody will care that the government is literally tracking them 24/7 like Big Brother.

Re: Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

#55

Post by rootusrootus »

alkonaut wrote: post #47
sailfast wrote: post #35

Why would such a mechanism of control incentivize those that feel sick to report their symptoms? Why would one submit to control at this level? This sound similar to ankle-bracelet-level Parole / house arrest structures. In fact, I'd prefer that because it would only be providing a single source of sensor data to the government instead of possibly making my entire phone and location history accessible.

It works well enough if everyone considers the best of their society as more important than their own freedoms. So it's pretty easy to extrapolate where this might work and where it would be fruitless.

The libertarian types who think the gov't shouldn't exercise this kind of authoritarian power also think their plan is the best for society.

Re: Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

#56

Post by bogomipz »

RaoulP wrote: post #48

I’m in precautionary quarantine in Taipei right now, after arriving from a Level 3 country some days ago. As a tourist, I had to provide a phone number of a contact person in Taiwan upon my arrival. They call the number and confirm it works before you even leave the CDC checkpoint at the airport. You also self report your health condition. I then stood in line for 4 hours to get a special taxi to my place of quaranti…

I'm curious as a tourist what happens if you don't have a local contact? What happens if one has nothing but a hotel booking for accommodation instead of a home? I'm guessing that wasn't your case but were there others you heard or saw who were just regular tourists?

Re: Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

#57

Post by landryraccoon »

huangc10 wrote: post #14

Like other people are saying, there's definitely ways around this. The only reason why Taiwan has been so successful in battling Coronavirus is that there is national pride in acting as a whole and doing what's best for society. There is huge shame to the family for people who defy. Taiwanese people generally know what helps society and when to listen. It is the cultural influence/mix of Chinese and Japanese governme…

I don’t think it’s only culture and this just happened by itself. The leadership of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) surely was a factor as well.

Culture works in conjunction with good policy and leadership. I would be wary of attributing too much to the relatively immutable and hand-wavy notion of culture.

Re: Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

#58

Post by [deleted] »

twomoretime wrote: post #38
mmhsieh wrote: post #7

Taiwan doing this = effective. china doing this = creepy. however, probably necessary in both cases. perhaps a rhetorical cease-fire globally would benefit us all.

One of those countries is an authoritarian "communist" state with a well oiled dissent suppression machine.

[deleted]

Re: Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

#59

Post by chillacy »

dekhn wrote: post #31
vkou wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the flu caused the kind of havoc to our medical systems that COVID is causing, I'd want this rolled out for the flu, too.

flu already was wreaking massive havoc, it's just a cost we've internalized. Like driving.

Part of that is having the hospital capacity for seasonal flu and accident victims. We're prepared for that. Coronavirus adding more cases will soon overwhelm hospitals in major US cities, at which point they will have to start triaging patients like they are in Italy.

Presumably if this became the new norm then we would up our hospital capacity to match and then re-adjust our life expectancy numbers as well.

Re: Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

#60

Post by [deleted] »

perennate wrote: post #13
mmhsieh wrote: post #7

Taiwan doing this = effective. china doing this = creepy. however, probably necessary in both cases. perhaps a rhetorical cease-fire globally would benefit us all.

It is probably both effective and creepy in both countries. The article even talks about how some find it creepy: > Taiwan’s electronic fence has drawn some complaints for its intrusiveness. > “It’s creepy that the government is teaming up with telecommunications companies to track our phones,” said a flight attendant in Taipei who was put under 14-day quarantine after returning from Europe in mid-March. > The woman,…

[deleted]
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