It is thought-provoking to see how the various countries are handling COVID-19. For easy comparison, let's look at China and the U.S.
China basically quarantined entire cities and even a whole province. But it did not stop at that. There was active effort to temporarily ramp up medical capabilities at Wuhan, where the most cases were, and it included bringing in resources from outside Wuhan. Medical teams were dispatched, and temporary hospitals were built. The quarantine was only part of the equation; without the pooling of resources from other parts of China, we would likely have seen more deaths in Wuhan.
And China is using technology to help curtail the spread of COVID-19. People detection technology is being used to track crowd size so that no place becomes too crowded. Yes, this may be a feature of the police state, but it is being used for the good of the people now, and people will remember this event, and in the future, more likely to continue to accept such monitoring since it actually helped save lives.
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to avoid quarantines even though the number of cases are rising. The underlying issue with healthcare in the U.S. means that it is near to impossible to actually grasp the actual state of things. There were probably many people who had not been tested because they lacked the medical insurance for such healthcare. Couple that with the U.S. medical system being built on a for-profit model, it does not have the buffer for a sudden ramp up like what China did. Which makes U.S. hospitals more prone to being overwhelmed (like in Italy).
The large income gap in the U.S. also means that the impact of any economic shutdown will have greater social impact. With the lack of medical leave, people who are sick will continue to work if they need the money to pay bills. This is just going to aggravate the problem; not having solved this latent problem in the past will now come to haunt the U.S. The lack of a central agency in the U.S. coordinating national-level efforts to bring resources to where they are most needed, and leaving things to the states and municipalities, will only result in slow response and greater chaos. At a time when national leadership is critical, national leadership is lacking.
Countries can and did criticize China about its initial handling of COVID-19, and some countries still continue to do so. But China took the drastic steps necessary to contain COVID-19; those critics of China should ask themselves if their own countries are doing the same for them.
China basically quarantined entire cities and even a whole province. But it did not stop at that. There was active effort to temporarily ramp up medical capabilities at Wuhan, where the most cases were, and it included bringing in resources from outside Wuhan. Medical teams were dispatched, and temporary hospitals were built. The quarantine was only part of the equation; without the pooling of resources from other parts of China, we would likely have seen more deaths in Wuhan.
And China is using technology to help curtail the spread of COVID-19. People detection technology is being used to track crowd size so that no place becomes too crowded. Yes, this may be a feature of the police state, but it is being used for the good of the people now, and people will remember this event, and in the future, more likely to continue to accept such monitoring since it actually helped save lives.
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to avoid quarantines even though the number of cases are rising. The underlying issue with healthcare in the U.S. means that it is near to impossible to actually grasp the actual state of things. There were probably many people who had not been tested because they lacked the medical insurance for such healthcare. Couple that with the U.S. medical system being built on a for-profit model, it does not have the buffer for a sudden ramp up like what China did. Which makes U.S. hospitals more prone to being overwhelmed (like in Italy).
The large income gap in the U.S. also means that the impact of any economic shutdown will have greater social impact. With the lack of medical leave, people who are sick will continue to work if they need the money to pay bills. This is just going to aggravate the problem; not having solved this latent problem in the past will now come to haunt the U.S. The lack of a central agency in the U.S. coordinating national-level efforts to bring resources to where they are most needed, and leaving things to the states and municipalities, will only result in slow response and greater chaos. At a time when national leadership is critical, national leadership is lacking.
Countries can and did criticize China about its initial handling of COVID-19, and some countries still continue to do so. But China took the drastic steps necessary to contain COVID-19; those critics of China should ask themselves if their own countries are doing the same for them.
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