US health chief to visit Taiwan, a COVID-19 success story
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar said Friday he wants to learn about Taiwan's “incredibly effective” response to the cornavirus even though the island did things that the U.S. has fumbled, such as having a unified strategy and citizens willing to wear masks.
Azar leads a U.S. delegation departing this weekend for a three-day visit to Taiwan, where they will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen and health system leaders, and Azar will give a speech to public health graduates. The trip is a geopolitical chess move in the Trump administration's contentious relationship with China, which considers Taiwan part of its national territory and has already registered its displeasure.
“The message of this trip is about Taiwan,” Azar said in an interview, deflecting a question about China. “It's about public health, it's about our partnership with Taiwan, but also the model that Taiwan offers to the world community of a transparent and open health care system. It is a model others can learn from.”
He called Taiwan's coronavirus response “incredibly effective” and said he's willing to “learn from them about their responses.”
It's not too late, says a leading expert on Taiwan's health care system, Princeton University's Tsung-Mei Cheng.
“It will be good if our health chief can learn from Taiwan, how exactly they did it,” said Cheng. “It's really a treasure trove of very useful information as to how you could effectively control and contain the spread of the virus.”
Taiwan had direct experience with an earlier respiratory virus known as SARS, so it did not take the new coronavirus lightly. A government-run health care system — broadly similar to what Sen. Bernie Sanders advocates — allowed public health authorities to mobilize resources to track and contain cases. Citizens were...
