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

reuters.com

161–170 of 206 posts

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

#161
post #68

> Quarantine violators can be fined up to T$1 million ($32,955). Today Taiwan fined a guy $33k USD for breaking quarantine by going to a nightclub (not a positive COVID case just a mandatory isolation due to travelling): https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/heavy-fine-for-taiwan-man-for-... They aren't joking about the fines.

They also have a steep fine for failing to report symptoms when entering the country, and have fined at least one person from this rule as well.

To balance things out, they are paying a $466 stipend for those that complete the quarantine.

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

#162
post #68

> Quarantine violators can be fined up to T$1 million ($32,955). Today Taiwan fined a guy $33k USD for breaking quarantine by going to a nightclub (not a positive COVID case just a mandatory isolation due to travelling): https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/heavy-fine-for-taiwan-man-for-... They aren't joking about the fines.

small correction: NTD$100,000 (usd$32,955) Taiwanese Dollars isn't that shitty (yet)

[deleted]

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

#163

> which has reported only reported 108 cases of the virus absolutely amazing

According to this site it is 215 now (March 23):

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

This is just 3 days after the publication of the Reuters article, so it seems like it may be growing at similar rates to elsewhere (doubling every 3 days), just from a low base?

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

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Permanent Residence thats good. Rules are rules, especially in these times.

Using the stick is usually a signal that the carrot is not big enough or doesn't exist.

In mandarin...

Kill one to warn hundred

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

#165

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.

Regarding the privacy aspect: I think it's a valid concern but this seems like the right pragmatic approach for this situation. I would be more comfortable if they made us use a tracking app on my phone instead, since the app has an express purpose and I can remove it afterwards. But the phone tracking method they are using instead is more robust and tried and true, so it makes since to use that. I guess the issue is…

I'm not doing it and tens of millions would balk at the Federal government tracking like this. Sorry, that is way past the slippery slope to tyranny.

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

#167
post #34

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.

How did they get your information for the daily call? Just curious. Is everyone required to submit contact information? Or did they already have the required contact info for daily health checkups?

The information problem is one thing, but having enough staff on hand to make thousands of regular phone calls and then even being able to respond to excursions (or phone power-off) in a matter of minutes... that's unimaginable for those of us in the USA.

Are these civil servants that have been re-purposed from other jobs? Are they telco company employees?

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

#168
post #81

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.

That sounds like the way forward, I wish things were working out that way here! (USA) Off-topic but, I just discovered your music on spotify a few weeks ago and can't stop listening to your albums, amazing stuff man!

>>That sounds like the way forward, I wish things were working out that way here! (USA)

The virus will go soon enough, one way or another, the surveillance state built for it, will not.

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

#169

Yuval Noah Harari (author of Sapiens) wrote a piece [1] on how we're now facing a choice between authoritarian surveillance and citizen empowerment, and how a decision made in this crisis could set the standard for the future. [1] https://www.ft.com/content/19d90308-6858-11ea-a3c9-1fe6fedcc...

A fascinating counterpoint to this is the German government, who not just as probably the first country did something distinctly different to quarantine (it's called contact prohibition and you can go anywhere you like as long as you don't meet with more than one person not from your household), but also rejected mass cell phone surveillance plans by a large margin. People here are mostly calm, cautious and despite a…

>>People here are mostly calm, cautious and despite a few outliers have largely high compliance rates from everything I see on the streets.

Shouldn't the virus spread little by little so people gain immunity and the hospitals can manage the number of patients? I doubt we can continue this shutdown for 12-18 months (vaccine) and who knows if meds cure it.

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

#170
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

we don't have the hospital capacity for seasonal flu victims.

Yes, we do. In the typical flu season, everyone who needs a hospital bed can get one. Flu season happens every year, we have planned and prepared for it. We have not prepared for the load that COVID places on our resources.
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