What It’s Like to Live in a Covid-Free Country
In a “new normal” world, Taiwan stands alone for its utter normalcy
Do you remember what it’s like to eat out at restaurants? To hang out at bars and clubs? To work in an office? To send your kids to school? To go to concerts, sporting events, birthday parties and weddings? In short, to live your life without having to worry about a deadly disease?
For people in Taiwan, it’s not anything they need to remember; it’s always been this way. They recently celebrated 200 days without a local transmitted case of Covid-19. And even before that milestone, life never really changed all that much. For several reasons which I’ll get into in a bit, there was never a lockdown and virtually no change in anyone’s daily lives, sans some social distancing and having to wear a mask in crowds.
I was here when the virus first hit. As ridiculous as it sounds now, my initial inclination was to run back to the U.S. because I thought it would be safer. Fortunately I ended up staying, which very well could have prevented me from getting sick or worse.
To date, Taiwan has had a total of 554 cases and 7 deaths. By comparison, the U.S. has had 9 million cases and 230,000 deaths (and counting).
