Dispatches From Taiwan: Flirting With Swine Flu

Speaking of fever-screening devices…

Living as I do in a rural mountain environment, I realize that I’m not regularly exposed to sights and situations that ‘big city’ dwellers experience on a regular basis. As such, I had a serious ‘Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore’ moment when, while strolling through San Francisco Airport’s International Terminal in preparation for my departure for Taipei, I noticed a significant number of folks around me wearing face masks. The supposed germ-blocking protection remained firmly attached to these passengers’ visages throughout the flight, and an equally ominous sign awaited me as I headed towards customs:

The majority of the Taipei airport and airline employees I saw, along with all of the customs officials, were similarly adorned. And check out what was awaiting me in the main lobby when I visited Chroma ATE yesterday:

This (curiously face mask-less) gentleman ensured that we all both signed our names on a form and disinfected our hands using a liquid solution:

Then he measured our body temperatures using a device such as the one Margery recently wrote about (I measured 35.9°C; slightly below 96°F):

His counterpart was ensconced in the factory lobby next door:

He also wasn’t wearing a face mask, but that particular lobby’s receptionist was:

And next to her was an eyebrow-raising sign:

I think the intended message was ‘no smoking’ (verbiage translations from knowledgeable readers are greatly appreciated). And I don’t smoke. But I confess that the prospect of being ‘punished’ for smoking by someone looking like the person in the sign might actually have the opposite consequence of motivating me to smoke…

Ahem.