Still intrigued by the response of the West to COVID 19 as compared to China. Would love to get help in answering the following:
1. China with a population of 1.32 billion, and was the guinea pig for the virus, has reported under 3,500 deaths so far. The US has a population of 350 million but has already exceeded 13, 000 deaths. If our principal goal is to save lives, which of the two should we be looking at for ideas?
2. New York, Italy and others started lockdowns over a month ago but deaths keep mounting. How important is Lockdowns as a decisive factor in stopping deaths?
3. Lockdowns in China was not only about keeping people indoors but was combined with extensive disinfection of every thing – including the issuance of new banknotes before reopening Wuhan. Similar strategy in Singapore, S Korea and Taiwan where death rates are very low. The values and norms in these societies facilitate top-down decision making (reflecting greater trust between citizens and authorities ?) as compared to societies where individual rights reign supreme. As Africa moves en masse into Lockdowns, should we going the route of those who seem to have succeeded ?
4. Did China focus on stopping transmissions or on preparing to treat those who would be needing treatment? I recall how we all marveled at the construction of massive treatment centers very early in the cycle of the epidemic. The West seem to have commenced this only about 2 weeks ago. Should Africa be focusing on that even more than Lockdowns – knowing how difficult it would be for us to copy China?
PLEASE HELP with answers.
Ethline
The Republic of China has an authoritarian political system. This system was very helpful in enforcing “stay at home”. The U.S. is still having problems in trying to get people to stay at home and not spread the virus. Some states do not have any form of lockdown in place. States took upon themselves when to have any form of stay at home. Unfortunately the US has not done any nationwide sanitizing. Covid19 originated from China. Therefore they were prepared. The US has a president who ignored all signs that a pandemic was in th making.