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As early as Dec. 31, 2019, Taiwanese officials boarded planes to check incoming passengers from Wuhan, the origin of the virus. In the next month, Taiwan brought in a series of strict travel bans and quarantines in regards to China, lead author Dr. Jason Wang reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Why didn’t Canada also move fast on strong border controls, the kind that are finally now in place at our border crossings?

The major difference is that until last week Canada took its marching orders on border control from the World Health Organization, while Taiwan acted only in its own interest.

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On Jan. 24, the WHO advised against travel bans. On Feb. 29, it explained its thinking, reporting: “Evidence shows that restricting the movement of people and goods during public health emergencies is ineffective in most situations and may divert resources from other interventions.”

In late January, a dogged group of MPs from all the major federal parties, led by Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux, started to dig into Canada’s iffy border measures, which consisted mainly of checking passengers from Wuhan and Hubei province for viral symptoms and giving them information.

At the time, one preoccupation of Tam and the Trudeau government was that southeast Asians not be stigmatized by this outbreak. At a parliamentary health committee meeting on Jan. 29, Tam linked not stigmatizing people to not quarantining travellers from Hubei. And a Feb. 2 statement on COVID-19 from the PMO said: “The Prime Minister… celebrated the Lunar New Year with Chinese Canadians (in Toronto) and again underlined the importance of Canadians’ support for each other, and of combatting fear, stigma, and racism.”