Thread by @FrankJannuzi

Covid Thread from Seoul: What ROK got right. What we got wrong. Why there is NO EXCUSE for Trump’s catastrophic failure to respond to COVID.
Just spent five days in ROK for work. I was STUNNED by the contrast with USA. Everything is open. Schools. Restaurants. Stores. Offices.

HOW have they done it?
It begins with having an actual government that CARES about the health — physical, and economic — of its citizens. Trump KNEW we faced a deadly virus, but he cared ONLY about himself and his re-election. He LIED to us. Repeatedly. And is still lying today.

If Trump’s lying was not bad enough, he ALSO forced his government to lie — suppressing health experts when they tried to warn us, undercutting their advice on testing, tracing, & masks, touting bogus miracle cures, and putting another incompetent, his @VP in charge of response.

So what should Trump have been doing? I mean, it’s a global pandemic, right? So probably we were just doomed to have 225,000 dead...so far...right?
NO! There was NOTHING inevitable about the horrific loss of life and the immeasurable economic carnage. How do I know this?

After all, I am not a doctor. (Although I do claim Dr. Mark McClellan a friend for 45 years, and he’s a framing genius and one of the greatest public health specialists in the nation).
No, I am no COVID expert. But I have eyes/ears, and have witnessed Seoul. Let me tell you...

...about Seoul.
First: their govt took COVID seriously from Day One. (Their day one and our day one are same, by the way...).
So they cranked up testing, tracing, PPE, mask wearing, and vaccine research. Results?
Total deaths: 457!
(You read that right. We had 900+ YESTERDAY!)

TOTAL COVID cases in South Korea?
26,000!!

We had 80,000+ cases YESTERDAY!

What do you see in Seoul?
EVERYONE wears a mask.
E-V-E-R-Y O-N-E

Hand sanitizer is EVERYWHERE. I mean literally, everywhere. EVERY store. Every office. Every home.

Temperature checks?
Yup.

High tech temperature check imaging devices are at entrance to EVERY major govt and private office.
EVERY business — from 7/11 to a sandwich joint — takes your temperature on arrival!
Everywhere!
And what else? You log in with your phone at door. They can TRACE if you get sick.

What else?
They have an app on your phone. (As a foreign visitor, you also must download). I report my health vitals daily. Takes about 2 seconds to confirm I am symptom free.

This is how they can open their borders, and trace someone who got sick to alert those exposed.

Speaking of travel....
Everyone in public transport wears masks, and of course sanitizer is free, and everywhere.
And at the airport? Free covid PCR test on arrival. Results back the next day. As long as you test negative, you can enter. Otherwise, must quarantine.

What about school?
They have retrofitted schools with plexiglass dividers, temperature checks at every entrance, PPE, and Ventilation. And while indoors, all are, as I keep emphasizing, wearing masks.

Folks — I have seen what our response could have been. SHOULD have been!

South Korea COVID case load?
500/per million of population.
Our case load?
25,000/per million!!

Our DEATHS per million of population?
700. Seven hundred of every million Americans have died of COVID.
South Korea?
Nine.
9.
Just 9/per million.

Much of South Korea is densely populated. Urban. Packed. Think NYC on steroids.
But despite this, which has accelerated the spread in USA cities, South Korea has conquered COVID. And with every flare, they respond QUICKLY and DECISIVELY.

IF USA had adopted the measures of South Korea — And NOTHING is stopping us, even now, other than Trump’s callous disregard for human life — we would have experienced only 3,000 TOTAL Deaths from Covid.
But #TrumpPlague has killed 230,000 American men, women, and yes, children.

With a competent, caring government, led by a smart, hard-working, person who listens to health experts, USA could have saved 200,000 lives. No joke. Seriously.
But hey, maybe it is not fair to think that USA would have a government as caring and effective as that in Seoul.

Maybe we just aren’t as smart and capable? Maybe America under Trump just can’t lead?
Well damn it, we’ve been suffering for nine months, and we have an Embassy here in Seoul. perhaps someone should have bothered to send Trump a “look at ROK” note!?
@SecPompeo ? Anyone home?

I try to be a forgiving person, because I have been forgiven by others for my faults (which are many). So I can forgive Trump for being slow....For getting it wrong....For fucking up our response to COVID.....for say, a three month grace period?

But what is @realDonaldTrump excuse for not getting his shit together by say, April? Remember April? When Trump said he would re-open the country by Easter? Remember?

If trump had done his job in April, we STILL could have saved more than 100,000 lives.

If Trump were not such a total fuck-up, so morally bankrupt & incompetent, so completely uninterested in governing, he would at least act NOW....and save the 100,000 MORE Americans who will DIE by the time America has a real president in January.
But he won’t.
#VoteHimOut2020

Typo. Mark is a “freaking” genius...maybe he is also a “framing” genius as a hobby, but I’ve never known him to be a major wood worker....

@threadreaderapp compile please

Sorry if I misstated. The high tech scanners are at major facilities - like hotel lobbies, and govt building. But the low-tech “touchless” thermometers are used at sit-down restaurants, which also use scanners to log in diners via a QR reader.