Taiwan is credited with sharply limiting the spread of coronavirus on the island by pairing and analyzing the electronic health and travel records of its residents, along with enacting other emergency measures.
But privacy experts say legal protections would prevent similar big data use in Canada.
When adjusted for population size, Taiwan has about 70 per cent fewer cases than Canada, despite being just 130 kilometres from China, where the outbreak began, and having thousands of daily visitors from the mainland — 2.7 million in total in 2019 alone.
Both Canada and Taiwan reported their first presumptive cases of coronavirus within days of each other in January, but by March they had diverged sharply in the number of infections reported.
As Canada struggles to flatten the curve — or slow the spread of the virus — Taiwan has prevented a curve.
(CBC)
Dr. Jason Wang, director of the centre for policy, outcomes and prevention in Stanford University’s school of medicine, said Taiwanese authorities were “vigilant.”
“They acted swiftly and they brought in measures to contain the spread of the virus,” said Wang, who frequently teaches in Taiwan.
Wang co-authored “Response to COVID-19 in Taiwan: Big Data Analytics, New Technology and Testing,” which was published in the journal JAMA. In that analysis, he noted that the island has been on alert for epidemics since the SARS outbreak in 2003.
According to his analysis, Taiwanese officials began boarding flights from Wuhan, the initial epicentre of the outbreak, as early as Dec. 31, 2019, shortly after China disclosed its first cases of the novel coronavirus. Eventually, certain flights were banned and visas for visitors to Taiwan were cancelled.
Triaging with text messaging
The government has since barred all foreign travellers from entering the island.
Taiwan also created a health questionnaire that passengers accessed by scanning a QR code with their phones while still on planes as they were arriving.
Depending on their health status, they were sent a text message providing them with a health declaration pass to fast-track through immigration. Anyone at a higher risk of infection was urged to go into self-isolation at home and tracked via their cellphone to make sure they stayed there. False reporting of health information became a fineable offence.
“So this way they could triage a large number of passengers very quickly without lining up in the airport, which in itself is a risk,” Wang said.
After activating its central epidemic command centre on Jan. 20, the Taiwanese government integrated its health insurance database with its immigration database to create a real-time super data source that became central to identifying people most at risk of infection.
The database is accessible by health professionals and certain government officials in Taiwan and includes a patient’s travel history and personal information. Health officials regularly use text messaging to communicate with patients and follow up in person.
Dr. Iris Gorfinkel, a Toronto physician and researcher, has long advocated for electronic medical records accessible to doctors and their patients.
But she said Taiwan’s use of big data to respond to the coronavirus outbreak wouldn’t be possible under Canada’s current privacy legislation.
Dr. Jason Wang, director of the centre for policy, outcomes and prevention at Stanford University’s medical school, said Taiwanese authorities ‘acted swiftly and they brought in measures to contain the spread of the virus.’ (Damian Marhefka/Stanford University)
“I think that in the Canadian context, it would be viewed as rather dystopian,” she said.
In Canada, health and travel records are also siloed under provincial or territorial and federal jurisdictions respectively.
Brenda McPhail, director of privacy and technology at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said that’s “a good thing.”
However, she said that if there was public appetite in Canada for big data use during times of a health crisis, “there should be an expiration date.”
She said even though “it may actually be helpful in mitigating risk,” there would have to be legal protections in place to ensure “extreme” data collection doesn’t continue indefinitely because “we’ve been habituated to the idea that it’s OK to collect more than we normally would about individual behaviour or movements.”
Despite being so close to the epicenter of the outbreak in China, with a combination of swift public health measures and big data, Taiwan is reporting fewer than 80 COVID-19 cases. 2:01
Wang also noted the extraordinary lengths with which Taiwan went to secure personal protective equipment for health-care workers and residents.
The government not only banned the export of protective masks, but it also made price gouging illegal and the military eventually assisted in increasing mask production to ensure everyone who needed one would have access.
Nobody wants to get quarantined, but at least you’re treated like a person, not a virus.– Dr. Jason Wang
Gorfinkel, who’s also a family physician, said she was “actually kind of admiring that because my struggle with not having masks in my office has been an ongoing one for the past month.”
While Taiwan’s response to the coronavirus is aggressive, Wang found the government was careful to not tread on people’s dignity and rights, even when fines were introduced for breaking isolation orders or spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
People in Taiwan expect a high level of liberty and score highest on personal freedom in Asia, after Japan, according to the U.S.-based human rights watchdog Freedom House. Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations so its human rights record is not evaluated by the body.
Some Taiwanese patients in isolation are also given supplies such as hand wipes, forehead thermometers and food during home visits from workers who check on their welfare.
Wang said that “makes it more tolerable. I mean, nobody wants to get quarantined, but at least you’re treated like a person, not a virus.”
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
