Film:
An Exposure of Affected Hospital
DIrector:
Chu Hsien-Che, 2007
(59 min, Taiwan, in Mandarin w/ English subtitles, Color, DVD)
Q&A to follow w/ director Chu Hsien-Che!
In April, 2003, there was a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak at Heping Hospital in Taiwan. According to a government report, there were over 600 people affected and 71 deaths. On April 24th, the Taiwanese government decided to isolate Heping Hospital, and asked all staff to return. This policy was met by strong resistance from Dr. Chou, who disobeyed the order, claiming that it was wrong to isolate over 900 people, with suspected cases of SARS, in one place. Dr. Chou was called "the runaway doctor" by the mass media and dismissed by the government. Following Dr. Chou's lawsuit against the government, an inconvenient truth about this hospital was uncovered. -- Director's note: The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak at Heping Hospital was one of the most important incidents in Taiwan in the last decade. Like during other frightening incidents in Taiwan, most of us keep silence in the face of history, but, has the incident ended? Will such pain go away? Do we have the ability to cope with SARS in the future?
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