For the past 3 months, the world is under constant threat of the COVID-19 outbreak. As of today, more than 150 thousand people have been infected. In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, nations have implemented various different measures, ranging from border control to mandatory isolation, and honestly speaking, I can’t agree with the vast majority of nations in this regard.

But first, I would like to point out the fact that my life hasn’t been affected by COVID-19 in a meaningful way, therefore my opinion may potentially be biased. I'm also not a public health professional, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt.

While I’m not suggesting that governments are overreacting to COVID-19, I do believe that governments should prioritise the economy, and make sure not to disrupt people’s lives when drafting policies to stop the virus.

So far, a few countries, including China, Italy, and Spain have implemented a mass quarantine policy, and I find that absolutely unacceptable. I believe that freedom of movement should always be a fundamental part of human rights, and should never be violated even in such difficult time.

More countries are implementing tighter border control in order to combat the virus. While I usually believe in open border, I can somewhat get onboard with such policies. However, I think it’s important to not to discriminate people  based on their nationalities. Countries like Singapore, Taiwan, and Indonesia are banning Chinese nationals from entering their countries, and I believe these policies are neither appropriate nor effective. Viruses infect people with no regard to their nationalities, and the odds of anyone in the world having COVID-19 are basically equal.

Lots of people are mad at WHO for not mentioning Wuhan in the name of COVID-19, and they justify their criticism by naming other diseases, such as MERS and Japanese encephalitis, both of them mention places in their name. But I think that’s not a good enough justification. Just because these names exist doesn’t mean they should. To my knowledge, WHO objected to the name “MERS”, but was forced to adopt it after ICTV named it as such. To this day, Legionnaires' disease is still widely associated with veterans, even though they are by no means related, and we should try our best to avoid such associations for any new diseases in the future.

Lots of people are praising South Korea for their measures combating COVID-19, but I disagree. By publishing detailed information of the infected people, their privacy rights are seriously violated. It creates division in the society, and encourages bullying. While it might be an effective way to contain the virus, it’s outrageous from a human rights standpoint.

The policy I can most agree with so far is the United Kingdom’s. In order to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed, they will not test patients with mild symptoms, and are instead encouraging them to stay at home. I think that makes a lot of sense, because even if they do go to the hospital and get tested, they can’t do much other than waiting for the symptoms to go away.

Overall, I think it’s appropriate for governments to strongly urge people to stay at home, and avoid large gatherings, but forcing people to follow these recommendations, or even threaten them with penalties is a step too far.

People are being criticised on the internet for not cancelling their travel plans, but I believe there’s no reason to do so, unless you were planning to go to a infected area. Also, I believe there’s nothing shameful for taking advantage of cheap airline tickets and extra holidays if you are considering going on a trip in the following weeks.

I also don’t think it’s necessary for healthy people to wear masks. This is a common sense in the western world, but a lot of people in Asia don’t seem to understand. By stocking up on masks, you are taking them from patients and medical professionals, which doesn’t help slowing down the pandemic at all.

At this moment, I still believe there’s no reason to panic about COVID-19. But again, I would like to stress that I’m not a healthcare professional, and this is only my personal opinion.

Here are a couple videos from medical YouTubers. They are my main sources of COVID-19 information. I highly respect them and would recommend everyone to watch them as well.

It’s been almost 6 months since I last posted here. A lot of things have happened, and this is a review of the first half of 2019.

In January, I spent 5 days in Uruguay. I’ve always wanted to visit South America, but I couldn’t do it due to the distance. Now that I live in Canada, I can finally go there. After all, it’s quite nice too feel the 23°C breeze when Toronto is at -20°C.

Uruguay is one of my favourite countries that I visited, it’s so beautiful, and it makes me hoping to move there.

I was supposed to visit the US in February, but my visa was denied, which made me very angry. I decided that I would be traveling one way or the other, and I ended up visiting Japan with my friend Max. I also found out that I can apply for a Taiwanese visa in Toronto, so I decided to visit Taiwan for a couple of days as well.

I met my boyfriend in Taiwan, and I went to a lot of places that I thought I would never have the chance to see in person.

However, I was a little disappointed about Japan. While it’s pretty beautiful, I don’t really enjoy the vibes. Maybe I will go visit for another time, but I don’t think I’ll be moving there.

I started flying in February, because all my previous classes were cancelled due to weather. I was so excited to finally sit in the cockpit.

I went to New Zealand in April, and stayed there for the whole month. Visiting New Zealand has always been a dream of mine, and Ralphie, my homestay host’s brother, was doing working holiday there. Which made me realize that, there were nothing stopping me from visiting NZ right away. During my stay, I went to Nelson, Queenstown, Tekapo, Christchurch, Picton, Wellington, and Auckland. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier, because the bridge was collapsed due to flooding. But I’m pretty sure I’ll go there again next year.

I stopped by in Taipei and Vancouver on my way back. I’ve never visited Vancouver, and by the time I left, I already decided that I will move there. Their public transport is so convenient, and everything looks so nice.

I had a very busy May, I passed my ROC and ALPD, finished all the ground school classes that I missed, and logged around 10 hours of flight time.

On the 1st of June, I went to the rally in memory of the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. We started at the Chinese Consulate, went pass the Hong Kong Trade Office, and finished at the Tiananmen massacre monument at UofT. This is my first time going to a protest, and it felt really nice. Chinese, Hong Konger, and Tibetan stood together demanding freedom and justice.

I will be visiting Taiwan for the fourth time this month, I will also go to Kaohsiung for the first time, and I am very much looking forward to it.

Lately I realized the necessity of having a social life, especially after the protest, because it felt so nice to have people around me who also shares the same ideology with me. Therefore, I wish to make more Canadian friends in the second half of 2019, and put a stop to my lonely life.

Most international students go home during Christmas, but I decided to stay in Canada, to experience what Christmas feels like.

I stay in a homestay because I can't rent my own place yet. My host family is a recently married young couple. They are Jennifer from Canton and Kyle from Canada. I picked this place mainly due to its proximity to my school, but my host family is what makes me love this place. We have a very similar lifestyle, and I never feel restricted.

At the start of December, Kyle's brother Ralphie returned to Canada, to surprise their parents. He even slept over at our place once when he just got off the plane. Since I wasn't going home, I went to their parents' house too.

Kyle is from North Bay, a city in northeastern Ontario. The winter temperatures there are usually around -20℃, I am not used to the cold, but I went there anyway. There were forests covered in snows everywhere, which makes me feel like playing Until Dawn.

Christmas is a festival for family reunions, there were a dozen people in the house, but it doesn't feel cramped at all since the house was like three times bigger than our place. We started a bonfire in the backyard, and we were sitting around and chatting while getting warm and comfortable.

In the last couple of days, we did things that I always dreamed but unable to do. We played games, like Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Party and Mario Kart. I bought these games a long time ago but had no friends to play them with me. These are the best days of my life.

For the first time since a while, I went to bed before midnight and had breakfast on time, so that I can spend more time with everyone. I never felt so comfortable seeing strangers, it was unbelievable even to me.

This Christmas made me realized that the only thing missing in my life is people. As long as I have nice people around, my problems would go away by themselves. For the first time, I am hoping to have an active social life. Although I am still struggling with social anxiety, at least I can understand how good it is to have friends around.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!