1/ South Korea .
"Amid these dire trends, South Korea has emerged as a sign of hope and a model to emulate."
sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/c…
"Amid these dire trends, South Korea has emerged as a sign of hope and a model to emulate."
sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/c…
2/ "Behind its success so far has been the most expansive and well-organized testing program in the world, combined with extensive efforts to isolate infected people and trace and quarantine their contacts. South Korea has tested more than 270,000 people..."
3/ "... which amounts to more than 5200 tests per million inhabitants—more than any other country except tiny Bahrain, according to the Worldometer website. The United States has so far carried out 74 tests per 1 million inhabitants, data from the [CDC] show."
4/ South Korea’s experience shows that “diagnostic capacity at scale is key to epidemic control,” says Raina MacIntyre, an emerging infectious disease scholar [U of South Whales]. “Contact tracing is also very influential in epidemic control, as is case isolation,” she says.
5/ Now that said:
"New case numbers are declining largely because the herculean effort to investigate a massive cluster of more than 5000 cases—60% of the nation’s total—linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive, messianic megachurch, is winding down..."
"New case numbers are declining largely because the herculean effort to investigate a massive cluster of more than 5000 cases—60% of the nation’s total—linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive, messianic megachurch, is winding down..."
6/ "...But because of that effort, “We have not looked hard in other parts of Korea,” says Oh Myoung-Don, infectious disease specialist at Seoul National University."
To be sure, we're still talking 270k tests for capture thus far. "not looking hard" isn't "can't look very hard"
To be sure, we're still talking 270k tests for capture thus far. "not looking hard" isn't "can't look very hard"
7/ For a deeper dive -- see: lawfareblog.com/lessons-americ…
No question, many of these practices wouldn't go over well here in the US....
No question, many of these practices wouldn't go over well here in the US....
8/ "Emergency texts from the government alerting citizens of nearby cases of coronavirus infection. A government-mandated GPS-tracking app designed to monitor and punish people who break quarantine...."
9/ "... Public government reports detailing the whereabouts of every single confirmed patient—down to which theater seat they sat in, which plastic surgery clinic they visited and even where they got their lingerie."
10/ I don't think anyone can realistically say what is ahead of us here in the US as far as policy roll out goes
But if there's anything I'm confident we can all agree on- a big component of South Korea's success is testing capacity.
If you can't measure it, you can't manage it
But if there's anything I'm confident we can all agree on- a big component of South Korea's success is testing capacity.
If you can't measure it, you can't manage it
