Because I am not speculating on the numbers of coronavirus, I want to give you a little more perspective on some of the dynamics we see playing out. I've already covered things like hygiene and sanitation in this ongoing series. Let's discuss doctors and medical care 1/n
The medical care system in China is widely hated. Violence by patients or family members against doctors is so common that Beijing passed laws dealing with assaulting medical staff whether it be doctors or administrators. Doctors and hospitals are pretty widely seen as 2/n
As incompetent and corrupt. Go into any medical facility and the first thing they want to do is hook you up to an IV regardless of what the ailment is. Have anything beyond a case of the sniffles, expect to pay through the nose cash only or no care. The stories that have 3/n
Circulated on the web for years as well as person to person are legendary. I know that there are some good places and doctors in China for sure, but on average the medical profession and institutions are not highly regarded. This gets into the second issue which applies to 4/n
China writ large, medical care, and their handling of coronavirus. Let me illustrate with an anecdote. Good long time personal friend is a doctor who would deal with cases NOT like coronavirus but cases that would be adjacent. They have experience in emerging market 5/n
Medical care. They said this: to be good at this type of medical care is a lot more than just having the building, the machines or even the doctors. There are systems, procedures, team work elements, and so many soft skills that bring everything together to address problems 6/n
To use econo geek speak: that is total factor productivity. If you will notice, what has China highlighted to address corona? A new building. Does new building fix corona? No. Could it help? Yes. Could it potentially hurt? Yes. Chinese management, public or private, is not 7/n
Designed to solve problems. It is not designed so that groups of people can identify a problem, market failure, business opportunity, public corruption, or health problem, and address it. If we look at China, the weight of research implies Chinese total factor productivity 8/n
Probably isn't growing maybe even negative. This is because it requires a shift away from Core thinking that allows individuals or teams or institutions to identify problems and solve them. Capital inputs (blood machines) are important, humans to manage them more important.
