3m ago 15:20
Emma Graham-Harrison
A claim by Britain’s chief scientific advisor in testimony to MPs ( reported earlier) that Taiwan has been successful in containing coronavirus without closing schools is at best somewhat disingenuous, at worst inaccurate.
Taiwan was already on winter break for the Chinese Lunar New year holiday when the scale of the threat became evident to its leadership, which includes an epidemiologist, Vice President Chen Chien-jen.
In response, they extended the winter break. They also promised to extend the summer term, so holidays in July would start two weeks later and as a result children wouldn’t lose any of their classroom time. That may have been the basis of the claim by Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific advisor.
But there is no question that schools were closed in February when they would normally have been open. And when the closures were announced, the minister of health and welfare Chen Shih-chung specified that disease control specialists had “suggested pushing back the start of classes to reduce the risk of clustered infections,” according to the Taipei Times.
The government even brought in a special type of parental childcare leave “to prevent infection”, for those workers who needed time off to care for school-age kids.