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Maybe the United States has more cases of COVID-19 than anywhere else on the entire planet because we refuse to learn from places like China and Vietnam where stopping the pandemic was prioritized over profits.
US politicians would rather kill us than learn from communists.
US politicians would rather kill us than learn from communists.
Is US media even capable of having a conversation about why communist states like China and Vietnam were able to stop the pandemic but we aren't?
Are they able to talk about the underlying issues of what it means to value human life and what "economy" and "freedom" really mean?
Are they able to talk about the underlying issues of what it means to value human life and what "economy" and "freedom" really mean?
"Vietnam’s success comes from a wealth of experience in dealing with infectious diseases, significant investment in public health infrastructure and a commitment to early action..." https://www.globalasia.org/v15no3/cover/vietnams-pandemic-success-is-a-lesson-for-the-world_sen-nguyen
"Da Nang was put under lockdown three days after cases emerged. Authorities pursued the same strategies that they had been using effectively since January: meticulous contact tracing, strict quarantine and rigorous testing..."
"Health officials have come up with a system that is referred as third-degree contact tracing. Covid-19 can penetrate, multiply and take hold of an individual rapidly, turning the victim into a weapon and helping it form a network of closely connected sufferers."
"Contact tracing is a road map for Vietnamese medical officials to tackle all legs of this network and prevent it from spreading further.
Concerns about privacy are inevitable, but many Vietnamese are happy to relinquish some personal information if it means saving lives."
Concerns about privacy are inevitable, but many Vietnamese are happy to relinquish some personal information if it means saving lives."
"Even if they do not test positive immediately, they still need to stay until the end of their quarantine. All quarantine-related costs, including food, accommodation and testing are covered in government facilities."
"The idea behind keeping quarantine accommodation free is to prevent people from using cost as an excuse to avoid isolation."
"...only Vietnamese nationals and some foreign experts and businessmen have been allowed in with strict conditions, including mandatory testing and a 14-day quarantine."
"All arrivals have to spend their quarantine at army-run camps or hospital facilities that are free of charge..."
"What has also helped the country beat back the virus is a strong and timely public information focus on the disease. Authorities exhort the public to report themselves immediately if they think they are F1s or have any symptom related to the disease."
"They can follow guidance or call up hotlines provided by the Health Ministry on Facebook, TV and newspapers in case they get into such a situation."
"People are informed up to the minute — the Ministry of Health quickly set up a website solely for Covid updates as soon as the pandemic began, while local media report on new cases as soon as test results are confirmed. This level of transparency is unprecedented and uncommon."
"It appears that people are remarkably capable of changing their behavior given enough information and a certain degree of peer pressure."
"...when there is a crisis... people come together like a strong fist. Public solidarity toward a common goal is the key element that has characterized Vietnam’s Covid-19 success so far — and the public did not need to wait for the government to tell them to work together."
"While the US has been embroiled in heated debates about wearing masks and social distancing, the same arguments do not exist in Vietnam."
"When it comes to major health issues especially, people in Vietnam want science and improvement. They trust experts and believe that they do everything they can to improve human health."
"Finally, any discussion about the two countries would not be complete if the Vietnam War did not come up eventually. A peculiar phenomenon has taken place..."
"Multiple Western journalists and observers have compared US Covid fatalities with the tens of thousands of Americans killed in that war, as if to shame the US’s catastrophic response to the crisis as opposed to the tremendous success of a developing country it once fought."
"From an American viewpoint, it is understandable to see how such a comparison came about considering the fact that since the end of the war, Americans have used it as a somber metric by which all other conflicts are measured in terms of horror and loss of life..."
"From a Vietnamese perspective, this comparison is insulting considering it was made without recognizing either the havoc wreaked on the Vietnamese people and land over 2 decades of conflict or the reasons why the country managed to suppress the virus while the US has not."
"Such lazy comparisons serve as a buzzword to American audiences and a crude means to calculate the US’s public and political failure.
Tragedies in both Covid and the Vietnam War were avoidable — the same can be said for this sad tokenism of Vietnam’s painful experiences."
Tragedies in both Covid and the Vietnam War were avoidable — the same can be said for this sad tokenism of Vietnam’s painful experiences."
