Perceptions around the globe

ASF already became endemic in several countries and poses an ongoing threat to spread throughout the world (Štukelj and Plut, 2018).

Two countries find themselves in a similar situation, surrounded by the virus. In the end both countries try to keep ASF as far away from their border as possible. Comparing the policies can be difficult though, as both countries face very different geographical and contractual circumstances. Germany as part of the EU is obliged to allow free travel and transport between other countries of the EU while Taiwan, as an insular state, has the ocean surrounding it. But how do people perceive these circumstances? CCU Taiwan gathered voices locally while we did the same in Germany.

The results show a big difference between the two countries. The majority of German people answered not to be aware of ASF. Even if they heard about it, they didn’t perceive it nearly as big of a threat as people in Taiwan did, who all answered to be aware of the virus, too. We can only speculate for the underlying reasons, but many participants in Germany wish their government would fill them in more effectively:

Chicken or Egg: Do people in Germany care less about the disease because there is less coverage on the Topic than in Taiwan? Or does German media inform less because people do not care as much?

When asked for ideas on how to prevent its spread we got an answer both igem teams can definitely agree with: “Fast and cheap tests” (link to CCU project page) can not only help locally but improve the situation worldwide.