COVID-19 Backlash For My Family in Taichung and America

            Back on February 9 there were developments on the trip front. My wife’s aunt and cousin didn’t want to go to Malaysia, not only because of the cousin’s cancer diagnosis but out of fear of close quarters on the plane with corona virus around. Her Cousin cancelled all four hotel reservations without consulting us. Perhaps she discussed it with my wife because she didn’t want to go, either despite the fact that between the two places there were 50 cases out of 25 million people. I wanted to go.

          By February 12, there was a panic of mask, alcohol rub, and toilet paper buying in Taiwan. At least two countries, Philippines and S. Korea, were refusing tourist from Taiwan as they treated Taiwan as one nation with China. After how the DPP government tried to separate itself from and blame China for the World Health Organization shunning, Taiwan got a taste of its own medicine to see how it felt to be prejudiced against. Taiwan should have been working closely with China and not using the corona-virus as propaganda with the U.S. and against China, treating it like China was to blame. Has my wife or many others in Taiwan said one good thing about what China has done to contain the outbreak? Her attitude is typical.

          By February 22, I could not watch Taiwan TV news any more. U.S.’s CNN news doesn't need a mention. For months leading up to the Taiwan presidential election Jan 22, it was non-stop propaganda against China about the riots in Hong Kong; now it is mostly sensational lies and half-truths about the corona-virus. I'd taken to sitting with my wife during the news while checking the real news feed on my smartphone. 

          By February 24, the ridiculous suspension of daily life when there was no call for it was finally over and students were going back to school. In all, only 18 cases of the virus showed up in Taiwan, not because of the extraordinary precaution, but because of luck and the fact that Taiwan is an island d that doesn’t have to worry about borders. Japan didn't fare as well because of a cruise ship that docked with hundreds quarantined infected. With the number of new cases dropping by 50% in China, the chances are lessened even further here, but with an end to the restrictions, only warm weather and the reality of its severity, far less urgent than the propaganda and media blitz deserved, there was an outbreak of the truth. The DDP's US ass-kissing government damage was done. A renewed sense of fear of relations with China was accomplished, but they had let their guard down about infected people coming in from Euro-America.

          On March 8, I was thrilled to catch a re-broadcast of a Mets vs. Astros pre-season game from Florida. Maybe I could watch a few games on my smartphone Baseball would make it nicer.

          Although corona-virus has no origin, the English-speaking China-hating expats in Taiwan were filling social media with unrelenting blame. There was a prejudice in the beginning that the illness would not affect westerners; that westerners were somehow exempt. I ghosted a pretentious expats that had an issue with a meme I shared about corona-virus on Facebook a few weeks ago.

            By March 13, all the news from the US was bad. Their government had not taken the simple precaution of supplying surgical masks to everyone. It looked like the danger from contagion would come from the west, not the east.  My California friend returned from visiting his daughter’s family in Hawaii and he was shocked by what he found. This was not the right time to go to L.A. or the USA, he wrote. Basketball season was postponed. All the hysteria that was going on in Taiwan two months earlier was happening in the US and around the world, but they weren’t as prepared as Korea, China, or Taiwan was. But Taiwan TV was not worried about the virus coming in through the back west door yet. Come in they did on non-cancelled flights with tourists and students returning home. TV news was stuck on blaming China.  I had watched little Taiwan TV news because of the continual propaganda. 

          Meanwhile, my eldest daughter in Pittsburgh was going to Disney-world with her family the following week, but her in-laws, with compromised immune systems, had cancelled because of the virus. They would have had a great time, especially with so many other people canceling out of fear, so long as they wore masks and kept their hands clean. My daughter was upset they cancelled her 20th Anniversary reunion at Brooklyn tech March 27. It’s a good thing they did. By the next week five Brooklyn Tech teachers had contracted COVID-19. Nevertheless, as late a March 19 the New York City Department of Education was still ordering the 6,000-student school’s 350 staffers to show up for work there, saying the building had been cleaned. The city failed to follow a March 9 directive by the state Education Department that “requires an initial 24-hour closure, in order to begin an investigation to determine the contacts that the individual may have had within the school environment.”

          After hearing what was going on in the world, I didn’t know if I'd be in the mood to walk outside to a restaurant. I couldn't go to Portland for the US corona virus backlash; its lack of preparation; the Dodger game I dreamed of attending with my son had been cancelled. The US government, after seeing what happened in the Asia in January, had two months to start stockpiling surgical masks and hand sanitizer, but hadn’t, nor was free enterprise limiting the amount of frozen chicken, towel, or toilet paper terrified people were starting to hoard.

            My eldest daughter initiated a video chat with her and my granddaughter that evening. She and her husband were bummed out by the suspension of major league sports; the corona-virus panic had also torpedoed their trip to Disney world in addition to the reunion at Brooklyn Tech. Even her husband’s hockey practice was cancelled. Her mother-in-law, fearing contagions at our granddaughter’s pre-school, suggested she not go for a week and instead stay with her and Ted at home. As of this writing, May 12, she has been home and not seen her grandparents for two months! Simone’s nurse friend knows the panic was bullshit – they only needed to wear masks and wash their hands - but what could they do? My son-in-law went to get chicken and toilet paper at Costco but it was sold out.

The problem with corona virus transmittal from the infected mouth to hands that rub the uninfected facial orifices is preventable by wearing surgical masks and keeping hands sterilized. There is no reason to cancel anything if this procedure is followed. We went through the precaution of cancelling "indoor" social events in Taiwan (not outdoor) and it was necessary only until enough masks were manufactured for everyone. School started again and all wear masks and have their temperature taken at the entrance. That the USA didn't learn from the precaution in China and Taiwan and prepare in advance is regrettable as it upsets the Big Apple cart and compromises education. On March 17, the New York Times ran an editorial: “Why Telling People They Don’t Need Masks Backfired” by Zeynep Tufekci saying all the things that have been on my mind.

            I was March 17; the day we were taking the HSR to Taipei for an overnight at a hotel we booked months before this madness, to see Green Day that has since cancelled their Asian tour. I thought we could celebrate St. Patrick's Day at the James Joyce Tavern and I even bought a green Pittsburgh Penguins jersey to wear and get one round free. But the DPP wasn't as careful with westerners arriving in Taiwan as they were with Chinese back in January so the tally of ratio of infected jumped stands: 3 Chinese  to 1 from the West and tipping, all in Taipei, and those are the confirmed cases. Westerners, having a heads-up on restrictions at the airport – two week quarantine - must have dosed up on Tylenol before deplaning. So, ironically, as a precaution, we were avoiding places westerners congregated, such as St. Patrick's Day taverns. 

            Meanwhile, my eldest daughter in Pittsburgh asked if I could send her surgical masks. I had asked her weeks ago if she wanted any not knowing there was a law against sending masks off the island.  My wife, extra-legal, wouldn’t let me mail them and we have been arguing. I said we could disguise them in a bag with a t-shirt but she said they would find them, confiscate them, and would lose money. In fact, the mail is slow and they won’t get it for a week or two anyway.

          By March 21, the working stiffs in Taiwan were off to their mundane Monday jobs, but at least Taiwan weathered the virus without the draconian measures China took, or the belated closing the barn door after the horse escaped in Italy and the USA. Stores never closed here; it was only by choice that people were doing more take-out delivery emptying restaurants. Restaurants and clubs had not closed. In fact, it had made going out more pleasant without crowds. The fear-mongering without precaution in the US, the poor policy planning of Italy, and lack of surgical masks or hygiene are the culprits of illness. Reckless driving is the main cause of injury in Taiwan; a little social distancing of pedestrians and vehicles would be a good idea, anyway.

          A Chinese made “We are the World” type song called “We are China", was scoffed at in the media in Taiwan and by misguided Taiwanese. With no credit given to China in the media for handling the crisis, it was mean-spirited and nonconstructive. News of positive developments in China are suppressed. It serves Taiwan's DPP government right to be inundated by nationals returning with Euro-American fetching virus. It has made more of an impact than the strict scrutiny and quarantine of Taiwanese business people returning from China at the outbreak, but people won't acknowledge that blindsiding. 

          Meanwhile, some China supporters are promoting the conspiracy theory that American soldiers in sports competition in Wuhan started the outbreak. The fact that China's economy is too good and the ridiculous US government rep of the “upside” of the pandemic with a localized Chinese crash helping the US regain superiority, it seemed possible at the time that the US made and released the virus in Wuhan, but it is an asterisk in this pandemic as China has proven to the world what a national campaign of containment can do. If it was true, it backfired; the hunter got captured by the game.

Here is a summary of points made in one Facebook discussions that sums up what some in  China were saying:

• That COVID-19 was brought to Wuhan by American troops taking part in the city’s World Military Games last Oct. 18-27.

• The 300-strong US contingent stayed at the Wuhan Oriental Hotel. It is located a mere 300 meters from the Hunan Seafood Market, where China’s outbreak began.

• Five of the US troopers developed a fever on Oct. 25 and were taken to an infectious-diseases hospital for treatment.

• 42 employees of the Oriental Hotel were diagnosed with COVID-19, becoming the first cluster in Wuhan. At the time only 7 people from the market were thus diagnosed, though they were treated first. All 7 had contact with the 42 from the hotel. From this source, the virus spread to the rest of China.

• Back in the US, the American team had trained at a location near Fort Detrick, the military’s viral lab closed down in July for various deficiencies."

By the writing of this article (May 12), with deaths approaching 100,000 in the U.S. politicians, unwilling to take responsibility for their poor response to the crisis, have taken to blaming China!

 The truth it seems is every crisis poses an opportunity for the ruling class in the US to further empower themselves and impoverish working families. It almost becomes dreadful to be a worker during a US crisis because we know it will be used to "save the American way of life", as Bush II (and Obama) said after the 2008 Stock Market crash, when each made executive orders taking a trillion dollars of tax revenue to give banks and corporations on the eve of the 2008 housing bubble meltdown. Read my lips:WE DON'T WANT OUR AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE SAVED!!!!!!!!

The fact that China's economy is too good and the 'upside' US statement of a localized Chinese crash helping the US regain superiority, it seems possible the US made and released the virus in Wuhan, but it is an asterisk in this pandemic as China has proven to the world what a national campaign of containment can do. This time the hunter got captured by the game.

Most healthy people are not at risk of dying from this virus any more than others. I've read it is like getting a bad flu and goes away after a while. Like I did in the classroom of mixed hygienic students for 30 years in New York City, wash your hands and insist students cover their mouths when coughing, sneezing, and yawning. Unfortunately, a visual mouth is necessary for language teaching so masks are bad when talking.

            By March 22, CNN, one of the only news services allowed on Taiwan TV (the other a European news channel from the UK) the headlines were:

·         Corona-virus deaths in New York spike to 114

·         The US Olympics and Paralympic Committee urges the 2020 Tokyo Games be postponed

·         UK issues unprecedented stay-at-home order

·         Democrats block corona-virus response in fear of 2008 repeat

·         Loss of smell and taste could be corona-virus symptoms

·         Dow closes down nearly 600 points. IMF says this recession could be worse than 2009

·         DeBlasio says NY hospitals may run out of supplies in a week

·         DeBlasio says NY schools may be closed for the rest of 2020-2021

·         L.A. schools likely to close for the year

·         CA teachers’ union calls for school closure

·         Taiwan should jump off the sinking US ship while it still can and join China.

My Taiwanese friend living in Florida reported this: “The reemployment website is jammed so bad. I have been trying over 2 days still no luck. Max is $275/week in Florida. Not even enough to pay mortgage/rental. You still can see spinning and spinning after you submitted then stop during office hours. If you tried in the night. It show error message right away.”

 Our NYC government unions, the UFT teachers' union and DC 37 library clerks' union, were both paying during furloughs, but non-governmental and other "non-essential “private, unionized or not, were not. As of this writing 30 million workers in the US have filed for unemployment insurance. If it were me, I would make a pact with my co-workers not to leave the store or office until we were guaranteed pay; the police would have to come drag me away. At least in prison they feed and house you, but prisoners and poor people are the most vulnerable

After bad-mouthing China, the US sounds more like a third world nation. The virus is contained in Asia. Taiwan, continues denigrating China’s response and echoes the US government, on which it depends for defense, to spin their yarn. Look at this muckraking from March 27, translated from MSN Taiwan: “Wuhan pneumonia which originated in China, (they insist on name blame dropping even now) continues to ravage the world. The negative treatment of the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tan Desai, from the outbreak of the epidemic, is regarded as the main culprit of the "global pandemic" of the virus. Some Canadian netizens have initiated a joint request for Tan Desai to step down, and more than 500,000 people have participated; however, Chinese President Xi Jinping today (26th) sent a generous letter of support in recognition of Tan Desai's efforts to fight the global epidemic.” Despite the awful translation, you can see Xi Jun-ping leads the Chinese people away from disaster because China was prepared and the capitalist world wasn’t, and all MSN can do is blame the head of the WHO for the west’s own unpreparedness.”  

By the end of March, it was apparent; Taiwan’s government would keep the Chinese out of Taiwan. 10,000 travelers were quarantined through Euro-American back- door friendliness. The Taiwan government did a great job protecting us from China but disregarded warnings from the west. The DPP has abandoned their support for independence so Taiwan is betting on the wrong horse.  The CIA controls all English language news in Taiwan. The enormous sparkling big AIT (American Institute in Taiwan) complex opened May 6.  

There are few people left in NYC that I know. My children have all escaped. But other Facebook friends and acquaintances had to be ghosted after blaming China for not letting Taiwan in the WHO independently; they were ignoring US subterfuge in denying Taiwan independence or reunification and I was staying off Facebook; the shelter at home edict has brought Facebook corona roaches out of the woodwork. I didn’t have any pesticide left so I turned off the lights and ignored them.

www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com

Purchase "Unnatural Beauty;Poems from the Han Riverside" here.

Copyright © 2020 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved