As a Taiwanese living overseas, I was last week surprised to read reports that children in Taiwan had died after contracting COVID-19. This was strange: Taiwan’s COVID-19 pandemic prevention is widely acknowledged to be one of the most successful in the world, and its fatality rate from the virus is comparatively low. How was a rumor like this able to gain so much traction?
Over the past few days, the truth has come out. An individual deliberately spread false information about fatal cases among children.
This was picked up and amplified by a Taiwanese celebrity with the intention of harming the nation’s image and stirring up chaos within society.