title: Helping other countries in crisis

content_text:
As the COVID-19 pandemic spins out of control, many parts of the world are experiencing shortages of medical masks and other protective equipment.

I am studying in Washington state, which at the time of writing is the US state that has suffered the largest number of deaths from the novel coronavirus.

The week before last, UW Medicine — an organization that includes the University of Washington School of Medicine and associated medical centers and clinics — sent its volunteers an e-mail asking the public to make masks and donate them to hospitals. Attached to the message was a mask donation hotline and a video about how to make your own mask.

According to the Washington Post, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that there is a shortage of masks and related medical supplies, and it suggests that if healthcare workers do not have enough medical masks, they should wear homemade masks, bandanas or scarves instead.

Hospitals around the US have sent out messages in search of people who can donate masks.

It comes as quite a shock to see how quickly US hospitals and healthcare workers have run into such shortages.

The US government’s slow reaction compares poorly with the proactive measures taken by the Taiwanese government. Taiwan’s mask rationing system ensures that everyone can obtain masks.

At the same time, members of the Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association have voluntarily established a mask task force to build extra mask production lines as efficiently as possible, and to assemble and test mask-making machines.

These industrialists have won applause from the public for their efforts, which should soon make it possible to manufacture tens of millions of masks per day. Their initiative is a tangible contribution to supplying the medical equipment needed to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 18, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and American Institute in Taiwan Director Brent Christensen signed a cooperation agreement on developing a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. The agreement includes an exchange arrangement under which Taiwan gives the US 100,000 masks per week, while the US sets aside raw materials that Taiwan needs to make protective clothing.

COVID-19 involves many unknowns. The fight against it might have to be a protracted war of resistance. Apart from exporting masks, exporting mask-manufacturing machines and production lines is another way of solving the shortage of masks.

If countries that do not have enough masks could use Taiwan-made mask machines and run their own production lines to quickly meet demand in their respective markets, it would show the whole world how Taiwan can help in the midst of the COVID-19 storm.

Martina Tu is a doctoral candidate in law at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Translated by Julian Clegg

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title: Aussie rugby staff cut; Barca to cut pay

content_text:
BITING THE BULLET:
 Barcelona’s Lionel Messi said that top players would make contributions so that the club’s employees can collect 100 percent of their salary

Three-quarters of Rugby Australia’s staff were temporarily laid off yesterday amid huge financial losses from the sport’s coronavirus-enforced shutdown, while Lionel Messi confirmed on Monday that Barcelona’s players would take a 70 percent pay cut to ensure that the club’s other employees are paid.

The cuts to rugby staff were “the toughest decision in the game’s history,” governing body CEO Raelene Castle said. “Although extremely painful, they are necessary to ensure ... we are able to come out the other side of this global crisis, fully operational and ready to throw everything into the rebuild.”

The sport has been hit hard by the suspension of the Super Rugby season, said Castle, who is to take a 50 percent cut to her US$500,000-plus salary.

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi celebrates scoring against Real Sociedad in their La Liga match at the Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, on March 7.
 Photo: Reuters

A worst-case scenario, in which the entire season would be lost, would cost the governing body A$120 million (US$74.03 million) in revenue, Castle said.

Messi, in a lengthy message posted on Instagram, confirmed that Barcelona players would take a 70 percent pay cut and make contributions to ensure that the club’s other employees are paid in full during the state of emergency in Spain.

Other Spanish clubs are expected to follow suit in applying temporary pay cuts, as soccer’s hiatus due to the pandemic leaves a number of sides fighting for financial survival.

Atletico Madrid have said that the club would impose salary reductions on staff whose hours have been affected, while RCD Espanyol have also confirmed pay cuts, although for sports staff only.

“For our part, the time has come to announce that, as well as the reduction of 70 percent of our salary during the state of alarm, we will also make contributions, so the club’s employees can collect 100 percent of their salary while this situation lasts,” Messi wrote.

“We want to clarify that our desire has always been to apply a drop in salary because we fully understand that this is an exceptional situation and we are the first ones who have always helped the club when asked,” he added. “Many times we have even done it on our own initiative when we thought it necessary or important.”

The senior players were on board with taking pay cuts right from the start, Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu said later on Monday.

“From the first moment, I wanted it be something agreed and not imposed — even if I could do it by law — but we wanted to reach an agreement, because it’s best for Barca and shows their commitment,” Bartomeu told sports daily Mundo Deportivo.

“In the case of the football first team, the reduction will be more than 70 percent, as agreed with the club,” Barcelona said in a statement. “This additional contribution by the team, plus the contribution from the club itself, will guarantee 100 percent of the salaries of all non-sporting staff, who will be subjected to temporary redundancy this week.”

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title: SPORTS BRIEFS

content_text:
TENNIS

US Open site to host beds

A portion of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was set to transform yesterday into a 350-bed temporary hospital, the USTA said, as the COVID-19 pandemic strains resources in New York City. Chris Widmaier, spokesman for the US Tennis Association, which owns the tennis center, said that the conversion of an indoor tennis facility on the venue would begin yesterday. “We’re here to help — no two ways about it,” Widmaier said. “New York is our home. We’re all in this together.”

GOLF

Augusta donates US$2m

Augusta National Golf Club, which in most years would be preparing to host the Masters, on Monday announced that it would give US$2 million to help fight the pandemic in the US’ southeast. The donation to the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area features US$1 million to Augusta University for immediate expansion of coronavirus testing and US$1 million to the emergency response fund to relief efforts to the area’s most vulnerable people. “We believe Augusta National has an important responsibility to support and protect the community who has so generously and consistently supported us for many years,” Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said.

SOCCER

Aston Villa to fine Grealish

Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish is to be disciplined and fined for ignoring government guidance to stay at home during the pandemic, the English Premier League club said on Monday. Media had reported that West Midlands Police opened an investigation after Grealish was photographed leaving an estate in the suburbs of Birmingham on Sunday morning. The 24-year-old Grealish apologized in a video on Twitter shortly before Villa issued a statement. “I just got a call from a friend asking to go around to his and I stupidly agreed to do so,” Grealish said. “I don’t want anyone to make the same mistake that I did, so I urge everyone to stay at home.”

NFL

Safety at stadium doubted

A day after a construction worker at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, was revealed to have tested positive for COVID-19, a second worker is “presumed positive,” the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday. Construction continues on the US$5 billion stadium in efforts to have it ready for the NFL season in the fall. “If they want to get the stadium done, they need to provide something to minimize the risk of exposing anyone,” an electrician said. Many workers are torn between safety and the need to work, the Times added.

SOCCER

Brazilian boss freed early

Former Brazilian Football Confederation president Jose Maria Marin, convicted in the sport’s global bribery scandal, became one of the highest-profile prisoners in the US to win release amid the pandemic. US District Judge Pamela Chen in Brooklyn on Monday granted the release of Marin, 87, from a federal prison camp in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. His lawyers had made an emergency request for his release, citing the virus, his medical history and his advanced age. It came amid reports that at least one inmate at the adjacent, maximum-security penitentiary has tested positive for COVID-19.

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content_text:
Since COVID-19 broke out in Taiwan, there has been a fair amount of news regarding discrimination and “witch hunts” against medical personnel, people under self-quarantine and other targets, such as the students of a school where an infection was discovered.

Quarantine breakers are almost certainly on the loose and it is only natural for people to be vigilant. One in Chiayi was found by accident at a traffic stop because his helmet was not fastened.

However, those who follow the rules by quarantining themselves should be encouraged to keep up the good work in a difficult situation, instead of being subject to more aggravation. After all, they are also frontline prevention warriors helping the nation fight the disease, as National Taiwan University’s College of Public Health dean Chang Chang-chuan (詹長權) said last week. They are isolating themselves for the safety of the public and should not be subject to discrimination.

However, a student who returned from Spain on March 19 posted a video on the Internet last week, showing how the management of the building he lives in repeatedly harassed him, and told him that his presence was “repulsive” and “troublesome” for the neighbors. This was despite the student following self-quarantine measures to the letter.

The management even asked him to move out of the building, which would defeat the purpose of a quarantine.

Meanwhile, a high school that was closed for a week due to two students being infected reopened last week, but students said they were afraid to wear the school’s uniform in public, despite the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) keeping its name a secret.

There has been at least one incident of a bus driver refusing to let the students board, while people waiting for a bus often decline to get on after seeing the students, they said.

Coverage by the news media might give people the impression that a legion of quarantine breakers is running amok in public, but the CDC on Monday said there are nearly 50,000 people under self-quarantine in Taiwan, making the offenders a small percentage.

It said that these people are not infected — if they had been, they would be in hospital — adding that anybody could find themselves in their situation.

It is also not their fault that they had to isolate themselves — except those who unnecessarily traveled abroad after the pandemic became serious. The student who returned from Spain, for example, left Taiwan on Jan. 19, almost two months before the WHO declared a pandemic, but he still got blamed for traveling abroad.

However, the worst is discrimination against health workers who are giving their all on the front line of the battle against the outbreak. There have been several high-profile incidents, such as a restaurant refusing to deliver food to a hospital and a preschool asking the children of a nurse to stay at home.

An article in CommonHealth magazine last week detailed what health workers have to endure in their daily lives: A nurse overheard her older child advising a brother not to tell his classmates what their mother did for a living, while the in-laws of another told her not to come home after work.

People are understandably tense and fearful, but some go too far in their actions. There will always be a small minority who ruin things for everyone, but people should have more sympathy and understanding, as the pandemic does not seem to be going away any time soon.

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title: EDITORIAL: Virus discrimination continues


content_text:
TRUE TOLL?
 Some Chinese are skeptical about official data, particularly given the overwhelmed medical system and initial attempts to cover up the outbreak

The long lines and stacks of urns greeting family members of the dead at funeral homes in Wuhan, China, are spurring questions about the true scale of casualties at the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, renewing pressure on a Chinese government struggling to control its containment narrative.

The families of those who succumbed to the coronavirus in the city, where the disease first emerged, were allowed to pick up their cremated ashes at eight funeral homes last week.

As they did, photographs circulated on Chinese social media of thousands of urns being ferried in.

Community officials wearing protective suits check residents leaving a compound in Wuhan, China, yesterday.
 Photo: AFP

Outside one funeral home, trucks shipped in about 2,500 urns on both Wednesday and Thursday last week, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported.

Another picture published by Caixin showed 3,500 urns stacked on the ground inside. It was unclear how many of the urns had been filled.

People who answered the telephone at six of the eight funeral homes in Wuhan said that they either did not have data on how many urns were waiting to be collected, or were not authorized to disclose the numbers. Calls were not answered at the other two.

Some families said that they had been forced to wait for several hours to pick up the ashes.

The photographs circulated as deaths from the coronavirus spiked in cities across the West, including Milan, Madrid and New York, where hospitals were erecting tents to handle the overflow as global infections soared.

Government data showed that 2,548 people in Wuhan had died of the coronavirus.

The announcement that a lockdown in place since January would be lifted came after China said its tally of new cases had hit zero.

It has stepped up diplomatic outreach to other nations hard hit by the coronavirus, sending some medical supplies, but some in China have been skeptical of the accuracy of the official data, particularly given Wuhan’s overwhelmed medical system, authorities’ attempts to cover up the outbreak in its initial stages and multiple revisions to the way cases were counted.

Wuhan residents on social media have demanded disciplinary action against top officials.

Many people who died had COVID-19 symptoms, but were not tested and excluded from the tally of official cases, Caixin said.

There were also patients who died of other diseases due to a lack of proper treatment when hospitals were overwhelmed dealing with those who had the coronavirus, it said.

There were 13,856 cremations in the city in the fourth quarter of last year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from the Wuhan Civil Affairs Bureau.

That was 2,419 lower than in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The families of the deceased might not even be able to say a proper goodbye to their loved ones just yet.

The Wuhan government on Thursday last week issued a statement prohibiting individuals in the city from tomb-sweeping activities until April 30, meaning they would not be able to observe Tomb Sweeping Day this week.

Other Chinese provinces, including Guangxi and Zhejiang, have also announced similar restrictions.

Two residents of Wuhan who had lost family members to the coronavirus said online that they were informed they had to be accompanied by their employers or officials from neighborhood committees when picking up the urns, possibly as a measure against public gatherings.

“I was told by the district government to wait until further notice on when I can pick up my father’s ashes,” Wuhan resident “Xue Zai Shou Zhong” (Snow in Hand) wrote. “There is a staggered arrangement for urn collecting.”

Another netizen, “Adagier,” said that she lost her husband to the coronavirus and had since been contacted by police warning her not to be too emotional — and to stop posting online.

“I have only one demand,” she wrote. “I want to give my husband a proper burial as soon as possible.”

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title: Virus Outbreak: Number of Wuhan deaths questioned


people: 李登輝 習近平 馬英九 蔡英文 吳斯懷 陳水扁 連戰

content_text:
The Liberty Times Editorial: Taiwan should pick US over China

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator-at-large Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) has said that there is a huge difference between Chinese military aircraft circling Taiwan along the edges of its airspace and invading Taiwan’s airspace.

He also said that whether it is US or Chinese aircraft flying along or encircling Taiwan’s airspace, there is no legal basis to say that such actions imply a clear provocation of Taiwan, and asked the Ministry of National Defense not to mislead the public.

People who hear this might think that it is not a very Taiwanese thing to say. US military activity in the vicinity of Taiwan is intended to restrict China’s “harmful passages.” It is to Taiwan’s benefit and can never be compared with China’s harassment, threats and targeted actions.

Wu’s remarks are not “an entirely personal view,” the KMT has said, but a result of confusion over the party’s core values.

After former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) term, when former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), followed by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), directed the party line, the KMT distanced itself from Taiwanese allies the US and Japan, and moved closer to China, which perceives Taiwan as an enemy. This turned the party’s past position on its head.

Taiwan has ended the “period of national mobilization for the suppression of the communist rebellion” and stopped repeating that it would “retake the mainland,” but Beijing, unhappy that Taiwan turned its back on unification following democratization, passed the “Anti-Secession” Law.

During Ma’s eight-year presidency, government support for the so-called “1992 consensus” and the idea that there is one country across the Taiwan Strait did not stop Beijing from repeatedly threatening to annex Taiwan by military force.

The Ma administration’s policy to maintain peaceful relations with China while befriending the US — placing China before the US — came under increasing scrutiny by the US and invited Chinese bullying.

Fortunately, the Sunflower movement caused a surge in public awareness, overturning Ma’s line in 2014 and 2016.

In the 2018 local elections, the KMT outperformed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at the ballot box, and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) took the opportunity to propose a condensed version of the “1992 consensus,” openly promoting the “one China” principle and military provocation.

Immediately after Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections in January, the COVID-19 epidemic broke out in China, and although it was unable to care for itself, it continued its military provocation of Taiwan.

Furthermore, it kept epidemic information from Taiwan and spread false information, and even tried to spread the virus to Taiwan when Taiwanese were repatriated from China.

Peaceful relations with China were blocked by Beijing a long time ago.

The chaos surrounding the COVD-19 pandemic made it even clearer to Taiwanese that politicians talking about maintaining peaceful relations with China are suffering from Stockholm syndrome and would do anything that Beijing says.

Taiwan has long wanted a peaceful relationship with China, but China has done nothing to reciprocate: It only wants peaceful unification or military annexation.

Lee ended the period of national mobilization for the suppression of the communist rebellion and his successor, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), deregulated cross-strait exchanges. Surely this is what it means to seek peaceful relations with China, but China only wanted docile acceptance of unification. Anything else triggered accusations of being a troublemaker and destroying cross-strait relations, live-ammunition exercises, and military aircraft and ships sailing around Taiwan.

This is tantamount to saying: “You may ask for peace, but you cannot have it.”

According to the logic of the KMT faction promoting peaceful relations with China, all Taiwan has to do is surrender to China’s demands.

During his presidency, Ma kept saying that he could manage to concurrently develop cross-strait relations and Taiwan-US relations, but the speedy improvement in Taiwan-US relations after 2016 has been a slap in Ma’s face.

US President Donald Trump accepted a congratulatory telephone call from “Taiwan’s President” Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the US Congress has passed the Taiwan Travel Act and other Taiwan-friendly legislation, military sales approved by Trump have set a record, the level of official contacts is rising and amid the spreading COVID-19 pandemic, the US and Taiwan have issued a joint statement announcing a partnership “to further strengthen US-Taiwan consultation and cooperation on combating the COVID-19 virus.”

If what the Ma administration did was considered promoting friendship with the US, then current US-Taiwan relations must be absolutely extraordinary.

However, the illusion of peace brought by so-called “peaceful relations” with China was immediately shattered when the Tsai administration refused to be blackmailed by China into accepting its “one China” principle. It was all an illusion and it is now time to wake up.

During this period, Taiwan’s government and people have been busy working together to fight the pandemic, but Beijing continues to manipulate the WHO into isolating Taiwan, using the outbreak to put a China-made straitjacket on Taiwan.

As the COVID-19 chaos continues to spread around the globe, more Taiwanese are expressing relief that they did not elect a president who would have “let people in” and opened the door to the coronavirus even wider.

Beijing’s attempts to politicize the repatriation of Taiwanese who want to escape the difficult situation in China is reinforcing public support for the Tsai administration’s adherence to epidemic prevention measures and the nation’s sovereignty.

There is a clear line between friend and foe. As Beijing treats peaceful Taiwan-China relations and friendship with the US as a zero-sum game, while the KMT continues its hackneyed talk about peaceful relations with China rather than shifting toward friendly relations with the US, the KMT’s future would continue to narrow.

This year has already seen presidential and legislative elections and the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak is casting a dark shadow over global health, finance and trade. It is also likely to have an impact on sensitive geopolitical issues — the US and China crossing swords over the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea being only one aspect.

Taiwan might be small, but its democratic force displayed during the elections and its epidemic prevention efforts, which have been noticed by the US and European countries, show that it is not as weak as defeatists would have it.

The US and China are both tied down by the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi only cares about his power and Trump is under re-election pressure, and both are ready for a fight.

The geopolitical situation is changing, and Taiwan cannot afford to pick the wrong side. The events of 2014, 2016 and this year make it clear that Taiwan is ready to make its choice.

Translated by Perry Svensson

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content_text:
A businessman who received millions of dollars for his work on Tokyo’s successful campaign to host the 2020 Olympic Games has said that he played a key role in securing the support of a former Olympics powerbroker suspected by French prosecutors of taking bribes to help Japan’s bid.

Haruyuki Takahashi, a former executive at the advertising agency Dentsu, was paid US$8.2 million by the committee that spearheaded Tokyo’s bid for the 2020 Games, financial records showed.

Takahashi said the work included lobbying International Olympic Committee (IOC) members such as Lamine Diack, the ex-Olympics powerbroker, and that he gave Diack gifts, including digital cameras and a Seiko watch.

“They’re cheap,” Takahashi added.

The payments made him the single largest recipient of money from the Tokyo bid committee, which was mostly funded by Japanese companies.

After his involvement in the successful campaign, Takahashi was named to the board of the Games organizing committee.

Takahashi acknowledged receiving the payments, but declined to give a full accounting of how he used the money, saying that he had urged Diack to support the Tokyo bid and denied any impropriety in those dealings.

It was normal to provide gifts as a way of currying good relations with important officials like Diack, he said, adding that there was nothing improper with the payments he received or with the way he used the money.

“You don’t go empty-handed. That’s common sense,” Takahashi said, referring to the gifts he gave Diack.

Banking records from the bid committee showed that it paid about US$46,500 to Seiko Watch.

IOC regulations allowed gifts of nominal value to be gifted, without stipulating an amount.

A day before the 2013 vote on the host city, Diack informed a meeting of African Olympic representatives that he planned to support Tokyo on merit, one of his lawyers said.

Diack did not instruct anyone on how to vote, the lawyer added.

The Tokyo bid committee also paid US$1.3 million to a little-known non-profit institute run by former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori, a powerful figure in Japanese sports and the head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee.

The payments to Takahashi’s company and Mori’s non-profit are enumerated in banking records from the Tokyo bid committee.

The payments were first reported by Japanese magazine Facta.

French investigators have not questioned anyone about the payments to the Japanese recipients.

The banking records were provided to French prosecutors by Japan’s government as part of France’s investigation into whether the Tokyo bid committee paid US$2.3 million through a Singaporean consultant to win Diack’s support for Japan to host the Games.

Diack, 86, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

His lawyer said that Diack “denies all allegations of bribery.”

A representative of Mori’s non-profit said the entity was paid by the bid committee to “mainly analyze international information.”

Bid committee secretary-general Nobumoto Higuchi said that Takahashi earned commissions on the corporate sponsorships he collected for the bid.

“Takahashi has connections,” Higuchi said. “We needed someone who understands the business world.”

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title: Tokyo bid paid for bribe probe target’s backing: lobbyist


title: Colombia’s ELN call a ceasefire for one month

content_text:
TEMPORARY OFFER:
 The rebel group said it would suspend military action as of today and criticized the government over its handling of the crisis

Colombia’s last recognized leftist guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), has announced a month-long ceasefire in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a statement released on Monday said.

The rebels said they would unilaterally suspend military action from today “as a humanitarian gesture.”

The statement was disseminated by a group of Colombian senators who are seeking to establish a peace process with the group.

A mounted police officer patrols the streets of Medellin on Monday as homeless people wait in line to receive a meal at a shelter after the Colombian government imposed mandatory preventive isolation to slow the spread of COVID-19.
 Photo: AFP

The ELN cited a recent appeal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a halt to conflicts worldwide as nations grapple with the pandemic, and said that Colombian organizations had made similar requests.

Guterres welcomed the move and hoped the ceasefire “can bring in measures of relief to communities and vulnerable groups in conflict affected regions in Colombia, and help the authorities to focus on fighting the pandemic.”

He also called on the other armed groups operating in Colombia “to do likewise”

Colombian Senator Ivan Cepeda, who was among those who made public the rebel statement, said the ELN reserved the right to defend itself against attacks by government forces.

He said it would also respond similarly to drug trafficking groups with whom it vies for control in some areas.

“We call on the government of [Colombian President Ivan] Duque to order its troops to remain in barracks,” the statement said, and urged him to reactivate contacts with its representatives in Havana to negotiate a bilateral truce.

However, Colombian High Commissioner for Peace Miguel Ceballos said the guerrillas’ announcement did not go far enough.

“We have just learned of the ELN’s decision to cease fire for a month. I believe that the country hopes for much more than that. We face a huge challenge, thousands of people can die,” Ceballos said in a radio interview.

Colombia had 798 confirmed cases of the virus as of Monday, including 12 deaths.

The ELN, which is said to operate in about 10 percent of the country, has about 2,300 combatants and an extensive network of supporters in urban centers.

In its statement, the ELN criticized the government’s handling of the health crisis and said the coronavirus had been artificially created and spread by the US.

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Israeli applications helping contain COVID-19 spread

One app tells you if you have been in the vicinity of a COVID-19 carrier and another aims to assess whether you have the novel coronavirus based on the sound of your voice.

In Israel, sometimes dubbed the “start-up nation,” with nearly 10 percent of workers employed in high-tech, the coronavirus pandemic has seen a flurry of new technologies designed to contain transmission.

Start-Up Nation Central, a non-governmental organization, has compiled a directory of about 70 Israeli technology companies developing responses to the new virus, which has infected more than 4,000 people in the country.

A woman checks the Hamagen phone app that was launched earlier this month by the Ministry of Health in the city of Netanya, Israel, on Sunday.
 Photo: AFP

One app that has stood out so far is Hamagen, Hebrew for “the shield,” launched earlier this month by the Ministry of Health.

Using geolocation technology, the app informs users about any points of contact with known COVID-19 cases.

Available in five languages, Hamagen has been downloaded by more than 1 million users.

The fortunate ones receive messages saying “no points of intersection have been found with coronavirus patients.”

“We’ll let you know if there is anything new,” it adds.

Hamagen was launched amid a controversy over plans to involve Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency in the fight against the virus.

Critics warned that allowing a powerful investigative body access to personal devices without a court order could mark an irrevocable setback in the effort to safeguard data protection.

Israel’s highest court ruled that any Shin Bet involvement required parliamentary oversight.

Hamagen requires user consent and the ministry has assured that “GPS data does not leave your mobile phone, and is not sent to any third party.”

The Ministry of Defense has meanwhile offered support to an Israeli start-up called Vocalis Health, which is developing an app capable of diagnosing COVID-19 based on the sound of someone’s voice.

“We are working around the clock,” cofounder Tal Wenderow said.

Voice samples from virus carriers in various stages of illness and samples from non-infected people are currently being collected, with the goal of developing an artificial intelligence-based algorithm to detect COVID-19’s vocal “fingerprint.”

Health professionals will then be able to alert users in the early stages of the disease and use the app to monitor its spread across the population.

The response from people willing to give voice samples has been “overwhelming,” Wenderow said.

In addition to helping curb new infections, the app could allow patients to be monitored at home, he said.

Israel’s largest hospital, the Sheba Medical Center, has already been using nascent technologies to protect staff caring for coronavirus patients.

“The guiding principle is to make sure there is as little contact as necessary between medical teams and patients,” said professor Eyal Leshem, director of Sheba’s center for travel medicine and tropical diseases.

To that end, Sheba monitors patients in mild condition through “telemedicine,” which allows vital signs to be communicated to staff via sensors connected to a patient’s phone “without any need for direct contact,” Leshem said.

“We used this in our in-patient treatment — now when we’re shifting from containment to mitigation, we’re going to start using the same technologies to monitor patients at home,” Leshem said.

Sheba also has an innovation and research center, which is working to collect “all meta-data from COVID-19 patients.”

“As we have more and more data accumulated, we’ll be able to identify markers of severe disease, identify prognostic factors for hospitalized patients at all levels, and potentially use this data to identify treatment opportunities,” he said.

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references: Twitter Facebook

title: Singaporean picks jail over fine for criticizing courts

content_text:
A Singaporean activist yesterday said he had begun serving a one-week jail term after refusing to pay a fine for questioning the independence of the city-state’s judiciary in a Facebook post.

Jolovan Wham was sentenced last year to a fine of S$5,000 (US$3,500) following a conviction for contempt of court — but he did not pay, meaning he must serve the short prison sentence instead.

While wealthy and modern in many ways, rights groups say the city-state uses unnecessarily harsh laws to curb dissent and have held up Wham’s sentence as evidence of this.

Wham had alleged in his post that Singapore’s judiciary lacked integrity and independence in cases involving the government or politicians.

Wham, who is also an advocate for migrant workers’ rights, appealed his conviction, but it was dismissed by Singapore’s highest court.

In a Twitter post yesterday morning, Wham said he was surrendering himself to the police to start serving his sentence after a send-off from supporters.

“I’m doing this in lieu of a 5K fine because I do not recognize the legitimacy of the [judgement] and the law, both of which are unjust,” he said.

Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said Wham “did nothing wrong and Singapore is blatantly violating his human rights by imprisoning him.”

“Every time Singapore imprisons a critic ... the country’s modern image gets another black mark,” he said.

Passing sentence last year, a judge said that Wham “did not show any remorse” even after conviction.

It was Wham’s latest run-in with the authorities.

He had previously been fined S$3,200 for organizing an illegal public discussion that featured Hong Kong democracy campaigner Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) speaking via Skype.

His cases are among several that have alarmed rights groups, including that of a Singapore Web site editor charged with defamation and a lawsuit brought by the prime minister against a blogger.

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content_text:
By Douglas Habecker / Contributing reporter, in Taichung

1. If you go to the hospital for a check-up, plan for the worst-case scenario — having to stay there without returning home. Have a hospital “grab bag” to either take with you or have someone deliver. Recommended items include: T-shirts, shorts and sleeping clothes, socks and underwear, sweater/fleece, personal toiletries and medications, computer (and headphones) and phone plus charging cables, towel, slippers, nail clippers and reading material. Also, have a water bottle/container that nurses can fill up with drinking water. Remember that Taiwanese hospitals generally only provide the most basic of daily necessities.

2. If you test positive, anticipate a full accounting of your whereabouts and contacts over the past couple weeks. You can help authorities by starting to recall and record this, together with contact names and numbers.

3. If you speak little or no Chinese, strongly consider a hospital with special services for foreigners as communication about medical/non-medical issues can be challenging. If you think you may have symptoms of the coronavirus, call 1922.

4. Remember that National Health Insurance may not cover all expenses for an extended stay, with extra costs possibly well over NT$20,000.

5. Keep in mind that your three hospital meals per day will most likely be Taiwanese cuisine, quite basic and unvarying.

6. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. You will probably be relying on friends and family to bring additional items, from favorite foods to clothing.

7. There is a time to mute your phone and rest. Don’t get overwhelmed updating friends, family and colleagues. Consider a Facebook page or other online location where you can direct people for the latest updates on your condition.

8. Try to create a personal daily routine that includes, if you’re able, basic exercises.

9. Don’t dwell on feeling guilty about getting sick and those you may have exposed. The main priority is getting well and ensuring those you’ve had significant contact with are made aware.

10. Be prepared for ups and downs as your deal with this illness and keep a positive attitude.

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title: COVID-19 tips and reminders for non-Taiwanese


content_text:
A coronavirus-free tropical island nestled in the northern Pacific might seem the perfect place to ride out a pandemic, but residents on Palau said that life right now is far from idyllic.

The microstate of 18,000 people is among a dwindling number of places on Earth that still report zero cases of COVID-19 as figures mount daily elsewhere.

The disparate group also includes Samoa, Turkmenistan, North Korea and bases on the frozen continent of Antarctica.

A dot in the ocean hundreds of kilometers from its nearest neighbors, Palau is surrounded by the vast Pacific Ocean, which has acted as a buffer against the virus.

Along with strict travel restrictions, this seems to have kept infections at bay for a number of nations, including Tonga, the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.

However, remoteness is not certain to stop the relentless march of the disease. The Northern Mariana Islands confirmed their first cases over the weekend, followed by a suspected death on Monday.

Klamiokl Tulop, a 28-year-old artist and single mother, was hopeful that Palau can avoid the fate of Wuhan, New York or Madrid — where better-resourced health services were overrun.

However, she described a growing sense of dread, a fear that the virus was coming or could already be on the island undetected.

“You can feel a rising tension and anxiety just shopping,” she told reporters. “Stores are crowded even more during non-payday weeks.”

There have been several scares on Palau, including a potential case that saw one person placed into quarantine this week as authorities await test results.

Inside Australia’s four remote Antarctic research bases, about 90 people have found themselves ensconced on the only virus-free continent as they watch their old home transform beyond recognition.

There is no need for social distancing in the tundra.

“They’re probably the only Australians at the moment that can have a large dinner together or have the bar still open or the gym still open,” Antarctic Division Operations manager Robb Clifton told reporters.

The bases are isolated until November, so the group is safe, but Clifton said that “the main thing that’s on the mind of expeditioners is how their loved ones are going back home.”

In some places, reporting no cases does not always mean there are no cases to report.

North Korea has portrayed emergency measures as an unqualified success in keeping COVID-19 out, despite sustained epidemics in neighboring China and South Korea.

However, state media also appear to have doctored images to give ordinary North Koreans masks — handing skeptics reason to believe the world’s most secretive government may not be telling the whole truth.

While Palau has no confirmed cases, it has still been gripped by the society-altering fears and economic paralysis that have affected the rest of the world.

Supermarket aisles in the country’s largest town, Koror, have seen panic buying and there are shortages of hand sanitizers, masks and alcohol.

The islands depend heavily on goods being shipped or flown in, meaning supplies can quickly run low.

United Airlines used to fly six times a week from nearby Guam — which has seen more than 50 cases — but now there is just one flight a week.

“Look at how bad we coped when shipments were late before this pandemic happened,” Tulop said. “Everyone was practically in uproar.”

Residents have been practicing social distancing. Doctors are waiting for test kits to arrive from Taiwan. The government is building five isolation rooms that would be able to hold up to 14 patients.

“I would like to be optimistic we won’t get the virus,” Tulop said. “But Palau would most definitely get it. We rely heavily on tourism and most of us even need to travel for work.”

Rondy Ronny’s job is to host big tourist events, but work has already dried up, and he admits to being “very anxious.”

“I have loans and bills and payments due,” he said. “This will definitely put me back, I hope the government will do something about our economy too, to help it recover.”

Palau’s biggest test might yet come with the first positive case.

However, even in the most remote corners of the world, the impact of the truly global pandemic is already being felt.

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title: Virus Outbreak: World’s last virus-free corners hold tight


content_text:
Argentina sacrifices economy to ward off virus, winning praise

When Argentine President Alberto Fernandez visited Mexico on his first foreign trip since winning presidency, he said that both countries would face the “challenge of globalization” together.

Less than five months later, the respective stances of Fernandez and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic could not be further apart.

Whereas the Mexican leader has only now started urging citizens to stay at home — after encouraging them to eat out to support the local economy — Argentina shuttered social life and imposed a strict stay-at-home policy a week ago, even at the risk of disproportionately affecting the livelihoods of Fernandez’s mostly middle-to-lower class voter base.

Key to that decision was the upgrade of the virus to a pandemic and stark conversations with leaders at the heart of fighting the disease, people familiar with the strategy said.

“The choice is to take care of the economy or take care of lives,” Fernandez said on Wednesday last week. “I chose to take care of lives.”

In Latin America, where huge numbers of people rely on the informal economy to survive, there are no good options for leaders. Fernandez’s decision to go all-in to fight COVID-19 stands out not just for its contrast with Mexico, but also with Brazil, where Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the risks and publicly clashed with state governors who are taking stringent measures to combat the virus locally.

‘MAKE OR BREAK’

“This is a make or break moment for Alberto Fernandez to show he’s in control and leading the country,” said Jimena Blanco, head of Latin America political research at consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft. “The worst scenario is to get a disorderly response — or no response at all — which is what we’re seeing in Mexico and Brazil.”

Fernandez’s move to put his country into quarantine was deeply influenced by the WHO’s March 11 announcement that the coronavirus was a pandemic, a senior government official said.

Maureen Birmingham, the WHO representative in Argentina, is in constant communication with the authorities and Fernandez himself.

That decision was reinforced when the Argentine president saw cases balloon rapidly in Italy and Spain — two countries where many Argentines’ ancestors hail from.

Prior to his announcement of a lockdown, Fernandez spoke with the Italian and Spanish prime ministers, Giuseppe Conte and Pedro Sanchez, to hear about their experiences, the official said.

Fernandez developed good relations with both men after visiting them earlier this year. Mexico’s president is by contrast famously loath to travel abroad.

He also wanted to buy time for Argentina’s fragile healthcare system by trying to flatten the curve as soon as possible, the official said.

The Argentine president speaks on a daily basis with the governor of Buenos Aires Province and the city’s mayor, where most cases are concentrated.

On Thursday night, the government ordered the closing of the borders to stop even Argentines from going out and into the country until the quarantine ends.

At the same time, Fernandez, who has conceded that his strategy would put the economy in a bigger hole, has said that he expects cases to peak in the first half of next month and has extended the lockdown until April 12.

Governments worldwide are adopting their own approaches to curb the spread of the virus, with some countries such as Japan that are relatively unaffected taking minimal measures, others including Spain and Italy at the heart of the epidemic in total lockdown, and a third group including Australia seeking to balance economic damage with protecting public health.

While each stance is contentious, in Argentina, a land of chronic financial crisis and fiercely divisive politics, the challenge of tackling the coronavirus is bringing an unusual sense of unity.

Fernandez stood together with leaders from different ends of the political spectrum for the March 19 lockdown announcement, a rare display of consensus made all the more unlikely given that the country is enduring a third year of economic crisis and again flirting with default.

Beyond purely humanitarian motives, the show of consensus hands Fernandez an opportunity to emerge from the shadow of Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez, the two-time former president who was instrumental in catapulting her namesake — who is no relation — to his election victory in October last year.

“A mass external shock that makes things terrible everywhere, instead of just where you are, can be politically useful,” said Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, a geopolitical risk analyst who teaches at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

“The early adopters were often the leaders who were most ready to change the conversation,” he said.

Polls show a majority of Argentines approving the government’s response.

Still, it is a huge gamble for Alberto Fernandez. While the wealthy can sit out the crisis working from home, that is not a luxury afforded the less well-off who make up his base.

As of 2018, almost half of Argentine workers were in the informal economy, according to the research institute at the Universidad Catolica de Argentina, including jobs such as street vendors and household workers.

The government’s financial response to the crisis has attempted to bridge that gap, with measures such as extra payments for low-income parents and retirees, a 10,000 peso (US$155) transfer for informal and some independent workers this month, and a price freeze on 2,300 essential products.

There is still no guarantee that his harsh measures, also implemented by some other smaller economies, such as Chile, Peru and Colombia, will be successful in fighting a pandemic that is quickly spreading throughout Latin America.

As of Monday, Argentina has reported 820 cases of the virus and 21 deaths. Also, with just about 2,800 tests performed last month, Argentina shows a poor testing rate when compared to neighbors like Chile, where Chilean President Sebastian Pinera’s government has conducted more than 7,500.

FRAGILE TRUCE

The sudden bipartisan cordiality might not last long either. Yet it still represents a political bargain notably absent in Brazil and Mexico, the region’s No. 1 and No. 2 economies respectively.

In Mexico, Lopez Obrador is taking advantage of his popularity and majority in Mexican Congress to follow a more Quixotic route, focusing for weeks on preventing an economic collapse before shifting gears on Thursday last week when he called on people to stay home.

Bolsonaro has left state governors with no other option than to take the difficult decisions themselves, sending conflicting messages to the country of 210 million.

It is true the coronavirus offers a distraction for Alberto Fernandez, who has yet to unveil a comprehensive plan to take Argentina out of the economic crisis.

It also justifies more social spending on his base.

Regardless of any political motives, he might have bought Argentina valuable time to fight the virus.

“We saw what was happening in Europe, we had the images in newspapers of Spain and Italy, countries very close to us, that created anxiety and stress in Argentina, and the government went out to attack the situation,” said Juan Negri, a political science professor at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires. “He’s trying to anticipate the worst case scenario of a social crisis exploding.”

It is too early to say if Alberto Fernandez’s approach will work any better than those of Lopez Obrador or Bolsonaro.

However, if it does, he might just have a chance to heal Argentina’s bitter political divide, Blanco said.

“If steered well, it could cement him as the leader for the population, including people who didn’t vote for him,” she said.

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content_text:
Virus Outbreak: Some UK police abusing powers during lockdown

‘OVERZEALOUS’:
 Some officers have been accused of using drones to spy on people for leaving home without good reason or telling shops what to sell

Some British police might have gone a “little too far,” a minister said yesterday after warnings some forces were turning the UK into a police state by abusing powers to enforce a COVID-19 lockdown.

New regulations brought in on Thursday give police the power to issue instant ￡30 (US$37) fines to people who gather in groups of more than two people or leave their homes without good reason, such as for work, food-shopping or exercise.

SPYING

However, some officers have been accused of being overzealous by using drones to spy on people taking walks at beauty spots, stopping dog-walkers from driving their pets to open spaces and reports they had even urged some shops not to sell Easter eggs because they were not essential items.

“The tradition of policing in this country is that policemen are citizens in uniform, they are not members of a disciplined hierarchy operating just at the government’s command,” former UK Supreme Court judge Jonathan Sumption told the BBC.

“This is what a police state is like. It’s a state in which the government can issue orders or express preferences with no legal authority and the police will enforce ministers’ wishes,” he said.

Unlike other countries, forces in Britain’s “police by consent” pride themselves on being answerable to the public and not the state.

National Police Chiefs Council chairman Martin Hewitt said they were looking to ensure consistency in the police response as everyone got to grip with the new “unprecedented measures.”

‘LAST RESORT’

“Our plan is that we will engage with people, we will explain the measures... we will encourage people to go home, but then as a very last resort we will enforce,” he told BBC radio.

The government drafted in the new regulations amid concern some Britons were failing to heed advice to avoid social gatherings to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The weekend before the new regulations were introduced, parks and beauty spots had been packed, leading to the Archbishop of Canterbury to tell people not to act selfishly.

‘DIFFICULT JOB’

“The police are doing a difficult job and they are doing it well,” British Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps told Sky News.

“I am sure there are individual examples where perhaps you look at it and think that is perhaps a bit further than they should have gone, but in general terms I think the case is that if people help everybody out, including the police, by staying home and the rest of it, then there will be no problems,” he said.

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title: Virus Outbreak: US panel outlines how to ration care

content_text:
A panel of advisers on Monday issued recommendations for new crisis treatment standards, advising doctors and hospitals on how they should decide which patients with COVID-19 get lifesaving care and which do not.

The report from a National Academies of Sciences committee offers a framework for treating patients during the COVID-19 crisis that shifts from saving individual patients to a focus on saving the most individuals possible.

It was issued at the request of US Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir and US Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec.

The new Crisis Standards of Care guidelines come as the US faces the prospect of rationing ventilators and other essential equipment to cope with a surge of severely ill patients infected with the new respiratory virus that is projected to kill between 100,000 and 200,000 people in the US.

In the report, the panel says that in spite of efforts to forestall the virus, it expects “a growing number of hospitals will face medical needs that outpace the existing supply of ventilators, protective equipment and other essentials, as well as the rate that enhanced supply can be produced, acquired and put into place. These circumstances will require a shift to Crisis Standards of Care.”

The panel says there is “an imminent need to prepare for difficult decisions about allocating limited resources, triaging patients to receive life-saving care and minimizing the negative impacts of delivering care under crisis conditions.”

First issued in 2009, Crisis Standards of Care were used sporadically to help doctors respond to hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and doctors were preparing to use them in the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, but never did, experts said.

They characterized the government’s request for an updated report — tailored to the COVID-19 pandemic — as both sobering and responsible.

“It’s important that we have these ahead of time so that doctors don’t have to decide these things on the fly,” said Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the John Hopkins University Center for Health Security.

“This is serious business,” said William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “If it’s not done, no one gets good care.”

According to the National Academies, the standards shift the focus from what is best for the individual to what can help save the most lives, especially when equipment, staffing and materials are in short supply.

They do not dictate which choices should be made, but provide a framework for making them.

They also protect physicians from malpractice lawsuits, said Lawrence Gostin, an expert in global health law at Georgetown University, who helped write the original guidelines in 2009.

Gostin said individual states were responsible for setting malpractice standards, but in a pandemic, the hope is that the federal government would implement the standards nationally, which would then be passed along to states and then to local hospitals.

Gostin said the fact that US officials requested the report signals “an urgency in trying to prepare hospitals for acute shortages, which will have implications for deciding who can live and who can die.”

Under normal standards of care, doctors in the US have a duty to provide the highest-quality treatment available.

“If someone is in respiratory arrest and the standard of care is a ventilator and there aren’t enough, doctors can be sued,” Gostin said.

Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin, said shifting to crisis standards allowed states or healthcare providers to relax or change certain rules, such as using medical devices in ways they were not originally approved for, if they offer a “better-than-nothing option.”

A key principle is that doctors never withhold care solely because of age, disability, race or gender.

“These are critical life or death decisions. Doctors and hospitals shouldn’t be making them themselves,” Gostin said.

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title: F1 teams join virus fight

content_text:
If British industry succeeds in saving lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, it would in part be thanks to the pioneering role played by Formula One (F1) racing teams in the country.

Seven of F1’s 10 teams have joined forces with leading aerospace and engineering firms to ramp up production of ventilators, while Mercedes has also worked with medics and academics to produce an alternative breathing aid.

Normally obsessed with improving the performance of cars that race at more than 320kph, the teams are stripping back lifesaving devices and using computer simulation to test whether more simplified models can be mass produced.

The seven have bases in the “Motorsport Valley” area around Silverstone, a one-time World War II airfield that switched, along with its neighboring engineers, into racing to host the first world championship grand prix in 1950.

“F1 teams are used to operating at pace. They move quickly, within a safety remit, and have the capacity and the capability to work on both the R&D [research and development] and the assembly,” one person familiar with the setup said.

In one of the most eye-catching developments, engine maker Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains has worked with a team of mechanical engineers at University College London and clinicians at University College London Hospital to build a machine that pushes an air-oxygen mix into the mouth and nose.

The device, a continuous positive airway pressure, has been used in hospitals in Italy and China, and can help patients avoid more invasive ventilation.

Having produced the first device less than 100 hours after the first meeting, the team has secured regulatory approval and is to work with other teams and the manufacturer to increase production.

“By working flat out ... we have accomplished something in five days that would normally take two years,” Andy Obeid, chief executive of the oxygen monitor firm Oxford Optronix said.

“It’s great to see Mercedes and other F1 teams answering the call... Great job, guys,” Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said on Twitter.

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content_text:
KEEN INTEREST:
 India is trying to procure medical gear from domestic producers and abroad, and China has emerged as a possible supplier as its factories reopen

India is to buy ventilators and masks from China to help it deal with COVID-19, a government official said yesterday, even though some countries in Europe had complained about the quality of the equipment.

India has recorded 1,251 cases of the coronavirus, with 32 deaths, but health experts said the country of 1.3 billion people could see a major surge in cases that could overwhelm its weak public health system.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government said that it was trying to procure medical gear, including masks and body coveralls, both from domestic firms and from countries such as South Korea and China, to meet shortages.

“China, definitely we are going to buy... Because scaling up our domestic production will take time,” said a top Indian policy official aware of the plan, who declined to be identified due to sensitivity of the discussions.

The Netherlands has recalled thousands of masks imported from China because of quality issues, while Spain has complained about defective imported test kits supplied by a Chinese manufacturer, media have reported.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that several countries had raised doubts about the quality of products imported from China and acknowledged that there might be some problems.

“A large number of Chinese manufacturers are working around the clock to help other countries save lives. Our sincerity and assistance is real. If problems occur in this process, the Chinese side will talk to relevant departments,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) told a news conference on Monday.

A second source with direct knowledge of Indian government plans said that Chinese manufacturers had shown keen interest in supplying protective health gear to India, lodging queries with Indian diplomatic missions in Shanghai and Beijing.

China was emerging as a favorite possible supplier at this stage as new virus infections were slowing there and its factories were being pushed to reopen, the second source said.

India needs at least 38 million masks and 6.2 million pieces of personal protective equipment as it confronts the spread of coronavirus, according to a report by its investment agency seen by Reuters.

However, Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an influential Hindu nationalist group close to Modi’s party, said that India should look at domestic alternatives because of widespread concern over the quality of China’s equipment.

“I don’t think we need Chinese support of any kind for our healthcare... Even if Indian firms produce at a higher cost, it doesn’t matter,” Ashwani Mahajan, a national co-convenor of the SJM, told reporters.

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title: Virus Outbreak: India turns to China for supplies


title: Catching COVID-19 in Taiwan: A foreigner’s perspective

content_text:
Douglas Habecker spent two weeks in a Taichung hospital — and lived to tell this tale

The chills were what first tipped me off that something was wrong. It was an early Thursday evening in late February and I was sitting in my office. I normally hit an energy low this time of the day but this was different, as I suddenly felt chilled, absolutely drained of energy, the lightest of achiness in my muscles and joints and a slight pain behind my eyeballs.

I went home, took a long hot shower and went to bed early. After a full day of rest, I felt normal enough on Saturday to jump on my bike and enjoy a vigorous 50-60km ride. Happy that I had defeated perhaps some sort of 24-hour bug, I enjoyed the rest of the weekend.

Nevertheless, in the week that followed, I continued to experience chills, especially in the evenings, sometimes accompanied by night sweats.

Douglas Habecker, center, photographs himself with two medical staff while recovering from COVID-19 in a negative pressure isolation room at a hospital in Taichung. He was released on Thursday last week with a clean bill of health.
 Photo: Douglas Habecker

It’s noteworthy that during these days, I passed several outside temperature checks with no issues.

The dull pain behind my eyeballs persisted and around midweek I started a sporadic, dry cough. Just as aggravating, my sense of taste seemed to change so that I entirely lost my appetite and almost had to force myself to eat two meals a day. When I started noticing blood in the phlegm I was coughing up, I realized it was time to seek professional medical advice. At the back of my mind was the specter of the coronavirus that was steadily accumulating attention and cases in Taiwan and across Asia.

TESTING POSITIVE

I drove to a well-known Taichung hospital and walked into the Emergency Room. Feeling slightly silly, I told the receptionists that I hadn’t been feeling well and wanted a coronavirus test. After registration and a wait, I was given an x-ray, had blood drawn and later was ushered in to see a doctor, who performed a nasal swab and asked me about my symptoms and recent whereabouts (I’d been in Taichung since returning from Pennsylvania on Jan. 11).

After all this, I was put in an isolated corner of an almost-empty ER recovery room and hooked up to an IV.

Later, the doctor came in and told me that while my profile didn’t fit that of a coronavirus victim — with Taiwan having little/no community transmission and me having been in Taiwan for almost two months — he saw a bit of cloudiness on a corner of one lung and didn’t like the results of my white/red blood count. Therefore, he recommended that I spend two to three nights at the hospital for observation and treatment, in a private room so that there was no risk of infecting anyone else. Surprised, I reluctantly agreed to stay over and later in the evening was taken up to a spacious private room.

The next three days passed in a blur of day and night IV antibiotic drips, combined with oral anti-flu and other medications, plus more blood tests. While my daytime temperatures were mostly normal, I would sometimes run a fever at night, leading the nurse to bring in a chilled “ice pillow.”

Within a few days, my chills and fevers did end with the only remaining symptom being the occasional cough, achiness behind my eyeballs and a complete lack of appetite. My breathing remained normal throughout.

The handful of friends who visited me — wearing masks and keeping a good distance — did helpfully bring outside food but even getting normal favorites down was a tedious, unpleasant task. At the same time, the doctor assigned to my case kept quizzing me about my symptoms as well as recent activities.

Perhaps this helped to jog a small memory that popped into my head, one that would quickly have a huge impact.

On the Monday before I started feeling ill, I had hosted four visiting friends from Washington State. They were on a three-day stopover in Taiwan on their way to a two-week stay in Thailand and took a day trip down from Taipei so that I could show them around Taichung, which I did in my car. Over dinner that evening before they took the High Speed Rail (HSR) back to Taipei, I briefly overheard one of my friends complaining about chills and “coming down with something” but didn’t think much of it.

From my hospital bed, I sent a LINE message to his wife, asking how the rest of their trip had been and she responded that my friend had indeed gotten sick with some unknown ailment and symptoms that seemed to mirror my own. A day or two after arriving in Thailand, she too had gotten sick, followed by a third member of the group. However, all three seemed to mostly recover after a few days.

DIRE NEWS

When I conveyed this to my doctor, she was immediately alarmed and ordered a COVID-19 test. Bans were also put in place against me leaving my room and any visitors, as well as the nursing staff, began wearing full personal protective gear.

The next day, a LINE message from my American friends brought even more dire news — the elderly mother of the friend who hadn’t felt well in Taichung had just tested positive for COVID-19 back in Washington State. My friend had spent a couple hours in close contact with her days before coming to Taiwan.

Nevertheless, my first coronavirus test wasn’t conclusive, leading to a second test. As this was happening, I received a call from the Taichung City Government Health Bureau, asking more questions and notifying me that they had requested that the hospital to move me to a negative-pressure isolation room, which happened immediately.

The much smaller room had its own bathroom and a big window but I was isolated from the world by a sliding glass door, a small atrium and an outer metal door. I soon learned to react like Pavlov’s dog to the swooshing sound whenever that door opened, scrambling to put on my face mask in preparation for arriving hospital staff.

Finally, on March 13, I was informed that two tests had come back as “weak positive” results for COVID-19. That evening, I had the dubious, slightly surreal experience of watching Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) describe my case on national TV as Taiwan’s 50th Wuhan coronavirus infection.

LOCAL SUPPORT

As all this was happening, I started fielding a stream of phone calls from health bureau personnel, asking for a thorough review of where I’d been and who I’d interacted with over the past two-plus weeks. Helped by my old-fashioned calendar book, we made good progress although there were gaps of time difficult to recall.

What struck me most, though, was the courtesy, understanding, patience and discretion that these government officers always showed when talking to me, which helped make a challenging time so much easier. With my help, they also established communications with my American visitors to obtain further information about their time in Taipei and flights in/out of Taiwan. Despite big difficulties getting tested back in the US, it would eventually be established that all four caught COVID-19.

Simultaneously, I was scrambling via mobile phone with the equally difficult task of informing those I had significant contact with — that I could recall — of my diagnosis and to expect government calls and, in many cases, likely home quarantine.

It was easy to feel guilty about sharing this news with them, until I reminded myself that I was also an unwitting victim of this virus. To the huge credit of my colleagues, friends, business contacts and others who fell into this group, the overwhelming majority were understanding and supportive, showing deeper concern for my own condition.

The on-going stress of fielding constant back-and-forth local and international messages from concerned friends and relatives who had been informed led me to request confidentiality among those who knew, partly to prevent an even more overwhelming, emotionally draining flood of inquiries. I am reasonably sure that most fellow COVID-19 victims in Taiwan have appreciated the cover of anonymity, well-guarded by government and other involved personnel.

After things settled down, I was faced with another growing challenge — being locked up in a small room with very little face-to-face human contact. Hidden behind full protective gear, my nurses would deliver three meals a day and check temperatures and blood pressure morning and night, and my doctor would stop by daily to update me.

They often were nice enough to linger a few minutes and engage in lighter conversations about non-medical topics, and I deeply appreciated their helpfulness and friendliness despite the personal risks they took in caring for me.

However, most of my days were spent on my own. Fortunately, a series of deliveries to the hospital by very considerate friends ensured that I had plenty of snacks, books and essentials like extra underwear and clothing. I also had my laptop, hugely important in maintaining contact with the outside world and my sanity. I found it very helpful to establish a daily routine that included regular sleeping/waking times, basic personal upkeep and some exercise.

However, after rotating between my laptop, books and the TV countless times, it was far from easy and I often found myself staring at life in the city outside my window.

Besides a very slight, infrequent cough and some pressure in my lungs, I felt almost normal by my last week of hospitalization, although I never completely overcame the fear that my condition would suddenly, unexpectedly crash, like some of the COVID-19 cases I had read about.

One afternoon about nine days in, my taste buds and appetite suddenly reawakened, leaving me finishing every meal and scrambling for my snack hoard. Not long after, however, another chest x-ray showed that my lungs still hadn’t fully recovered, leading to a new round of medication. Despite this discouraging setback, I was informed 24 hours later that I had gotten my first negative COVID-19 test result, the first in three consecutive negative results required to be released, pending government review and approval.

This was followed by a second negative test, at which point my doctor said it would be extremely unlikely and unlucky for me to get a positive result on my third test. Fortunately, she was right.

This result went to health officials for evaluation and they agreed to my release, although it would be a further two to three days until the hospital received the official document that would allow me to depart as Taiwan’s 30th discharged coronavirus patient.

Not long before this uncertain moment, I was chatting with my doctor, who commented that my case was one of the fastest recovery times seen in Taiwan to date, as well as her hospital’s first COVID-19 patient.

However, she asked for suggestions and input, out of certainty that I wouldn’t be the last occupant of that special room. Looking around the small space that had been my sanctuary and my prison for over two weeks, I realized it was very likely that others will be lying in that same bed, staring at the same walls and window, as they struggle to overcome this virus as I did. They have my deepest, most heartfelt wishes that — like me — they will recover and return to the lives they enjoyed before this terrible interruption.


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Virus Outbreak: Virus in sewage foretold outbreak in Dutch city

Dutch scientists have found the coronavirus in a city’s wastewater before COVID-19 cases were reported, demonstrating a novel early warning system for the disease.

SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — is often excreted in an infected person’s stool.

Although it is unlikely that sewage will become an important route of transmission, the pathogen’s increasing circulation in communities would increase the amount of it flowing into sewer systems, Gertjan Medema and colleagues at the KWR Water Research Institute in Nieuwegein said on Monday.

They detected genetic material from the coronavirus at a wastewater treatment plant in Amersfoort on March 5, before any cases had been reported in the city, about 50km southeast of Amsterdam.

The Netherlands confirmed its first COVID-19 case on Feb. 27 and discovered that health workers had fallen ill with the infection in a southern part of the country days later — a sign that it was spreading in the community.

“It is important to collect information about the occurrence and fate of this new virus in sewage to understand if there is no risk to sewage workers, but also to determine if sewage surveillance could be used to monitor the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 in our communities,” Medema, the institute’s principal microbiologist, and coauthors said in a paper released ahead of peer review.

“That could complement current clinical surveillance, which is limited to the COVID-19 patients with the most severe symptoms,” they said.

It is the first report of detection of the coronavirus in sewage, they said.

Wastewater surveillance is a well-established method of detecting poliovirus and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, as well as the use of illicit and prescription medications.

Sewage surveillance could also serve as early warning of the emergence and re-emergence of COVID-19 in cities, the Dutch scientists said.

“The detection of the virus in sewage, even when the COVID-19 prevalence is low, indicates that sewage surveillance could be a sensitive tool to monitor the circulation of the virus in the population,” they said.

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Virus Outbreak: Van Gogh painting stolen from Dutch museum closed to prevent virus spread

A painting by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh was stolen in an overnight smash-and-grab raid on a museum that was closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, police and the museum said on Monday.

The Singer Laren museum east of Amsterdam said that The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884 by Van Gogh was taken in the early hours of Monday.

By early afternoon, all that could be seen from the outside of the museum was a large white panel covering a smashed door in the building’s glass facade.

An image released by the Gronninger Museum on Monday shows Dutch master Vincent van Gogh’s painting The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, which was on loan to and stolen from the Singer Museum in Laren, Netherlands, on Monday.
 Photo: AP

Museum general director Evert van Os said the institution that houses the collection of US couple William and Anna Singer is “angry, shocked, sad” at the theft.

The value of the work, which was on loan from the Groninger Museum in the northern Dutch city of Groningen, was not immediately known. Van Gogh’s paintings, when they rarely come up for sale, fetch millions at auction.

Police are investigating the theft.

“I’m shocked and unbelievably annoyed that this has happened,” Singer Laren museum director Jan Rudolph de Lorm said.

“This beautiful and moving painting by one of our greatest artists stolen — removed from the community,” he added. “It is very bad for the Groninger Museum, it is very bad for the Singer, but it is terrible for us all because art exists to be seen and shared by us, the community, to enjoy to draw inspiration from and to draw comfort from, especially in these difficult times.”

The 25cm by 57cm oil on paper painting shows a person standing in a garden surrounded by trees with a church tower in the background.

It dates to a time when the artist had moved back to his family in a rural area of the Netherlands and painted the life he saw there, including his famous work The Potato Eaters, in mostly somber tones.

Later, he moved to southern France, where he developed a far more colorful, vibrant style of painting as his health declined before his death in 1890.

Police said in a statement that the thief or thieves smashed a glass door to get into the museum. That set off an alarm that sent officers rushing to the museum, but by the time they got there the painting and whoever stole it were gone.

A team including forensics and art theft experts was studying video footage and questioning neighbors.

Van Os said the museum’s security worked “according to protocol,” but he added: “Obviously we can learn from this.”

The Dutch government on March 12 banned large crowds among its measures to halt the spread of the virus, leading several museums to close temporarily.

Before the closure, the museum was hosting an exhibition titled “Mirror of the Soul,” with works by artists ranging from Jan Toorop to Piet Mondrian, in cooperation with Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.

The Singer Laren’s collection has a focus on modernism, such as neo-impressionism, pointillism, expressionism and cubism.

It is not the first high-profile theft from the museum. In 2007, thieves stole seven works from its sculpture garden, including a bronze cast of The Thinker by Auguste Rodin.

The famous sculpture was recovered a few days later, missing a leg.

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China courts Latin America with medical diplomacy as US trade tensions simmer
Beijing is providing medical equipment, expertise and much-needed funding to countries with weak public healthcare systems as it seeks to change its image from the source of the pandemic to that of a savior

As Argentina was trying to introduce emergency measures to insulate its ailing economy from COVID-19 last month, the Chinese ambassador paid a visit to the home of Argentine President Alberto Fernandez to discuss an offer.

At the meeting in the wealthy Olivos suburb of Buenos Aires, Chinese Ambassador to Argentina Zou Xiaoli (鄒肖力) laid out how the Asian giant was ready to help Argentina face the pandemic: donating masks, gloves, thermometers and protective suits.

The donations, welcomed by Fernandez’s government, show how China is leveraging its production of medical equipment and expertise in halting the coronavirus as a soft power tool in regions like South America, where it is jostling for influence against the US.

From Argentina to Mexico, Brazil to Peru, Latin American nations have accepted offers of support from China as the number of cases across the region has climbed, amid growing fears about the preparedness of their healthcare systems.

There have been more than 787,000 confirmed cases worldwide of the virus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19, and more than 37,000 deaths.

Although South America has so far not been hit as hard as other parts of the world, experts fear that might change as winter arrives in the southern hemisphere.

“Some countries in the region have reached out to China asking for help,” a Chinese official in Buenos Aires, who asked not to be named, told reporters. “We will share with them our experience in combating COVID-19 and offer sanitary materials within our capacity.”

As trade tensions between Washington and Beijing have simmered in the past few years, the administration of US President Donald Trump has warned Latin American nations that they should be wary of becoming too economically reliant on China — to little avail.

In Argentina, the region’s third-largest economy, China has made steady inroads, from solar power investments to the construction of a new space monitoring station.

It has supplied more than US$17 billion of financing since 2007, Inter-American Dialogue data show. China has also become the top consumer of Argentine soybeans and beef.

As the virus spread in China, Argentina’s new left-leaning president Fernandez — who took office in December last year — exchanged correspondence with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).

In letters seen by Reuters, Fernandez in February offered solidarity with China as the virus raged from the outbreak center of Wuhan.

Last month, Xi replied that the situation in China was improving and he called for a deepening of ties between the two nations.

Days later, the Chinese embassy announced its donations, posting pictures on Twitter of large trucks carrying a mobile hospital that was set up within a military base near the Argentine capital.

“China will continue to help in all possible channels. Long live friendship!” the embassy said on Twitter.

The help came at a difficult time for Argentina, which is grappling with a severe economic crisis and renegotiating US$110 billion in foreign debt with creditors, including the IMF.

“This is part of the link we have with China, which is a solid relationship of mutual respect and ties that go beyond strong trade,” an Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman told reporters when asked about the donations.

China’s aid to Latin America reflects a broader global trend, as Beijing looks to steer the narrative away from it being the country where the coronavirus started and was initially downplayed.

Instead, China wants to be seen as spearheading the global fight against the pandemic, experts have said.

Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Luo Zhaohui (羅照輝) said at a news conference in Beijing on March 19 that the country would “ride out the storm with people from other countries, strengthen cooperation and strive to win the last victory in the fight against the virus.”

While Trump has been criticized by opponents for branding the pandemic “the Chinese virus,” China has won praise among Latin American governments that have accepted its help.

The Chinese government said it has supplied test kits, protective suits and other forms of medical aid to more than 80 countries and international organizations.

“It’s remarkable and a credit, in a way, to China’s own commanding control of information that it’s been able to re-envision itself as a leader in the fight against coronavirus globally,” said Margaret Myers, director of the China and Latin American program at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue.

Myers said the recent restart of Chinese industry, as cases have subsided, has enabled the country to be a provider of key products as the rest of the world’s production slows.

“This will create opportunities for China in the coming years,” she said.

The US, meanwhile, is struggling with its own battle to contain the virus, with the WHO warning on Tuesday last week that the country could become a new epicenter of the crisis.

Before the epidemic hit hardest, Washington in February pledged US$100 million toward international efforts in combating COVID-19, including for developing nations.

In Latin America, China’s hands-on approach has been well received.

Chile, which has among the highest numbers of coronavirus cases in the region, has sought advice from Chinese health officials to guide its response and is sending an air force plane to China to pick up donated supplies, including tests and respiratory equipment, the Chilean minister of health said.

In Mexico, officials have said they are awaiting 300 ventilators from China, crucial yet scarce equipment in treating patients, while in Panama, health officials heralded a video conference with Chinese experts to work on strategy, something China has done with more than 100 countries.

The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that China would send protective gear for health professionals and coronavirus test kits. The country has also opened talks with China over possible financial support.

“Thank you China for cooperation and solidarity with Ecuador!” the country’s Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner wrote on Twitter, itemizing help from China that he said included 40,000 surgical masks, infrared thermometers and protective suits.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has moved quickly to heal a diplomatic rift with China, and Chinese officials have said that Beijing would assist with medical supplies and technical assistance.

Chinese firms including Alibaba, Huawei, COFCO, China Communications Construction and the Bank of China have pledged donations around the region.

In Argentina, Washington is keen to show that it also wants to help.

“We plan this week to make funds available to Argentine authorities to combat coronavirus,” an official at the US embassy in Buenos Aires told reporters, adding that the country was “looking at the possibility of additional donations.”

Additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian, Aislinn Laing, Dave Sherwood, Luc Cohen, Jake Spring, Eli Moreno and Diego Ore Oviedo

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The coronavirus lockdown with its fear, stress and money worries is difficult for anyone, but athletes are facing extra mental health risks, as they go from highly active lifestyles to isolation and boredom, experts have said.

While some housebound athletes have posted upbeat videos of themselves training or attempting Internet challenges such as juggling toilet rolls, the stress caused by the extreme adjustment and uncertain future looks likely to take its toll.

Long-term effects on athletes after the 2003 SARS and 2009 swine flu outbreaks included anxiety, obsessive hand-washing and fear of getting too close to people, Tennis Australia chief medical officer Carolyn Broderick said.

Serena Williams reacts to losing a point against Martina Hingis in their Miami Open quarter-final at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne, Florida, on March 24, 1998. Williams was defeated 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4).
 Photo: Reuters

However, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented, with athletes sidelined worldwide after the coronavirus forced most sports into hibernation and put billions of people in lockdown.

Those affected range from well-paid superstars such as tennis’ Serena Williams, who has suffered from depression in the past, to journeyman pros and Olympic hopefuls whose lives have been thrown into turmoil.

Williams, 38, who only needs one more Grand Slam title to equal the all-time record of 24, admitted that social distancing because of the coronavirus has left her feeling “a ton of stress.”

“Every little thing makes me crazy. And by anxiety I mean I’m just on edge. Any time anyone sneezes around me or coughs I get crazy,” she said on TikTok.

Even before the virus, a steady stream of people involved in sports — often an insecure and high-stress profession — have wrestled with depression, from Williams to Olympic swimming great Michael Phelps, mixed martial arts fighter Ronda Rousey, boxer Mike Tyson and All Blacks rugby player John Kirwan.

The athletes out of action include thousands of would-be Olympians, many of whom have put careers on hold to chase medal dreams.

“I would be lying if I said I was all right,” said US weightlifter Kate Nye, who has bipolar disorder and was bound for Tokyo.

Concerns have also been raised about Australia’s swimmers and cricketers, after athletes in both sports suffered well-documented psychological problems in the past.

“The mental health thing, we talked about it in a conference call this week,” Australian men’s cricket coach Justin Langer said. “Particularly for any of our staff or players who are home alone basically. We have to keep an eye on those guys and girls to make sure they’re OK.”

Broderick, who was deputy medical director for Australia’s 2016 Olympics team and sits on a National Rugby League advisory panel, said that the effects of isolation can be felt more acutely by athletes.

“They have all the same psychological issues that everyone does, but also the stress and anxiety about their futures that they cannot easily control,” she said. “They don’t know what the next stage is going to be or how long they’re going to have to quarantine or isolate for.”

Substance abuse, such as drinking or using drugs, is one tell-tale sign of problems, Broderick said.

“Stress and anxiety can manifest in substance abuse. That’s what I’d look out for, if they’re using alcohol as a support,” she said.

She recommended that athletes stick to routines, focus on what can be controlled, and use their extra time for a hobby or online training to maintain their mental health.

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title: Isolated athletes face extra mental health risks: experts