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Comment by GregarianChild | Hacker News Reader

What do you find objectionable about Taiwan's Covid response, taking into account its success, not to mention the cost (in a general sense) of quarantining whole countries (which means restricting the freedom of millions of health citizens), and then not being successful, unlike Taiwan?

In 2020, my mother (and millions of other citizens) spent more time at home quarantined than she would have spent in prison, had she committed a serious crime (other than extremely serious stuff like murder) as a first-time offender. Had the quarantine been as successful as Taiwan's policy ...

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Since Taiwan is an island, it makes sense to control who visits it.

A similar approach was tried in the Faroe Islands, but was not very successful.

It is likely that people of Taiwan are more willing to give up their freedom than western countries. But I don't know that for sure.

Taiwan (and some other countries) used phone surveillance location-tracking to enforce quarantines:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-taiwan...

That is like using ankle bracelets for tracking people under quarantine, just worse.

My understanding is that people were given the choice of either quarantining in a government facility without phone tracking, or using the app. That seems more than reasonable to me.

> That is like using ankle bracelets for tracking people under quarantine, just worse.

To the extent mandatory quarantines are justifiable, this method of enforcement seems reasonable and minimally invasive given the purpose.

I don't see why it's worse than ankle bracelets.

Mandatory quarantines of those with a positive test result seems perfectly reasonable. Mandatory quarantines and/or continuous location monitoring of what should be free citizens does not strike me as in any way reasonable.

Mandatory quarantine is only required after initial entry to Taiwan. After 14 days the person is free to move about without any continuous location monitoring. This is needed because of the presymptomatic period of COVID-19. By cutting off potential vectors of née infections the entire country is able to enjoy normal lives instead of prolonged quarantine. The mandatory quarantine period is also publicized, so the visitors can make a decide if it is worth it to enter the country. Many people have went to Taiwan despite the mandatory quarantine—they are choosing 2 weeks of lockdown then normal life rather than seemingly unending lockdown amid worsening pandemic.

> To the extent mandatory quarantines are justifiable

Mandatory quarantines are justifiable, buth their enforcement using surveillance technology is not. In free countries we trust citizens to uphold laws and only punish those who trespass them, not monitor everyone to ensure compliance. We do not have mandatory backdoors in our computers to monitor copyright enforcement, and we do not have mandatory government cameras at home to prevent domestic violence.

> I don't see why it's worse than ankle bracelets.

Ankle bracelets do not require interaction with wearer, while this monitoring is using incoming calls several times a day to ensure you have phone with you. If i were ill with covid-19 last thing i wanted is to be repeatedly woken up by phone calls.

She would have had her information stored in a database at all times along with the rest of us. She would have been tracked and monitored everywhere she went. She would have undergone an inspection anytime she went anywhere.

Your mom's quarantine is fine by me if it means the 80% of the population who are under 55 can live their lives.

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