Consider for a moment, in this time of anguish and loss and death, of mass unemployment and flattened national economies, the Twilight Zone alternate reality that is Taiwan.
For months and months, life on the island has been, in a word, normal — spookily so. Weddings have been held worry-free. People have packed pro ballgames, attended concerts and thronged night markets. Taiwan’s population is larger than Florida’s, but its COVID-19 death toll can be counted on two hands.
It is the kind of off-the-charts success against the virus that has created a sinking feeling in the stomachs of many residents: How much longer can the island’s good fortune last?