Pogue Mahone
The caf's Camus.
Yeah, fair point. I was probably wrong to say vaccine hesitancy. Maybe a lack of vaccine urgency would be a better way to put it. At a national, rather than individual, level.I don't think vaccine hesitancy is the reason for either Taiwan or Singapore. Singapore has vaccinated 25% of the population. The pace of the vaccination is constrained by availability of vaccines. For Taiwan, they had problems procuring vaccines.
The recent spike in cases in Singapore is most likely due to the new variant being more transmissible. The spike in community cases was preceded by increased imported cases.
For Taiwan, they had probably let their guard down. They have been living their life as per normal, and when the new variant broke through their defence, the population was caught out cold.
Both countries seemed to have society open at too high a level for the % of populace that’s been vaccinated. Which is why they are where they are. They’re still a long way short of the sort of surges we saw in European countries so this isn’t a disaster. More of a shot across the bows.