Flattening the curve, Taiwan style

Taiwan, a country of 23 million people, is only 110 miles across the Formosa Strait from Mainland China. Yet, its numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths have been relatively low. Could it be because their Vice-President, Chen Chien-Jen, earned a Doctor of Science in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins in 1982, and early in the pandemic rolled out a comprehensive nationwide plan to flatten its curve? No doubt that helped. You can click here for details. But a sound strategy alone would have been insufficient if the people of Taiwan did not follow their leaders and embrace the physical distancing and masking practices demonstrated in this video sent to us by the 83 year-old grandmother of Thomas Lee, emergency medicine. My conclusion after watching both videos is that an effective strategy for meeting the challenge of COVID-19 goes something like this:  combine good science with strong leadership, front-line adoption of practices that reduce transmission, and generous doses of good humor and positive thinking.  #WeAllNeedHaircuts