“Vietnam went in hard, early, rapidly restricting movement and introducing a vigorous contact-tracing programme. There have been a few hundred confirmed cases and no deaths [of #Covid19].” ft.com/content/ac686d…
“South Korea was briefly the worst hit country outside China. It has suppressed the virus, albeit with myriad curtailments of everyday life. Just 280 people have died in total. In the UK in mid April, that death toll would have been reached each morning before breakfast.”
“Germany rolled out a massive, decentralised testing and contact-tracing programme to help slow the spread of the virus, then introduced a lockdown early on the epidemic curve. Economic damage was contained, while the death rate is much lower than in France, Italy or Spain.”
“Sweden opted for a policy of “herd immunity”, keeping schools and businesses open and relying on distancing measures. Sweden has the highest infection prevalence in Europe right now, by design. The flow of new confirmed cases is still growing.”
“The UK flirted with herd immunity, before locking down late and discharging some elderly people from hospitals into care homes without testing them.1/16 residents of care homes in the UK has died, and UK has arguably suffered one of the most deadly outbreaks yet of any country.”
“For the US, the response has been so diverse across different states as to defy easy description. “A patchwork of state reopenings,” the Washington Post called it in mid May, adding that it was a deadly game of trial and error”.
“Ideology matters, too. For some politicians, the US is the role model to be emulated. For others, Scandinavia is the paragon. The current British cabinet seems disinclined to learn anything from Germany, while nobody seems to care about Vietnam.”
