Some Covid 19 Successes in Other Parts of the World and What We Might Learn and Should Apply
New Zealand (population 5 million) is now down to one new Covid 19 infection. It has been on strict lock down and is just reopening with many businesses now open except those involving face to face contact, such as barber shops, masseuses and nail salons. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/27/845304917/new-zealand-says-it-has-won-battle-against-covid-19
Vietnam (population 95 million) started responding to the pandemic in mid-January; it went on strict but targeted and selective lockdowns and community quarantines wherever the virus appeared. It was transparent and proactive in identifying and isolating the virus; it has had no reported Covid 19 deaths. https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/the-secret-to-vietnams-covid-19-response-success/ Because it was right next to China, and they share a long border, one would have expected a far higher rate of spread and contagion.
Australia (population 25 million) has experienced over 6,7oo infections and 84 deaths. In March it adopted a tight nationwide lockdown with social distancing and closed beaches and borders, schools and businesses. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/have-australia-new-zealand-stopped-covid-19-in-its-tracks-coronavirus It is now doing contact tracing using digital apps. https://www.engadget.com/australia-covid-19-contact-tracing-app-183203946.html Restrictions are starting to be eased across the country as the new infection rates have fallen sharply. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3BMR7D2gLI
In the United States (population 330 million), we now have over 1 million confirmed cases (1/3rd of the world’s total) and over 55,000 confirmed deaths (1/4th of the global deaths) and those numbers are still growing, rather than declining. While the infection is waning somewhat in New York City, the nation’s financial capital; it is popping up unpredictably in the rural heartland from Georgia to Kansas to South Dakota and sidelining the nation’s agricultural workforce, including undocumented workers in the fields and meat processing plants. “Police powers” such as the closing of local businesses, stay at home orders, closing of local public parks or schools, and quarantines are reserved to state governments, not our federal government. Each of our 50 states makes its singular decisions about closing and reopening their economies in response to the Covid 19 pandemic. That is not ideal for successfully controlling the fast and silent spread of the pandemic, which recognizes neither state or national boundaries, and then restoring our national economy. However, the CDC and FDA made early and consequential mistakes that impaired our ability to test and determine the spread of the epidemic, and the President failed to heed repeated early warnings and appreciate our nation’s peril until the spread of the disease was well advanced and embedded. He then failed in the most important roles of a leader in uniting the nation in a time of grave danger. Given the abject performance of our President and the sharp diversity of strong opinions in our nation about him, we must make the best of a decentralized state-by-state approach to the pandemic. States like Montana (population 1 million) with a declining death and infection rate and only one new infection on Sunday are slowly reopening. https://www.kpax.com/news/coronavirus/montana-reports-additional-covid-19-case In a state like Georgia (population 4 million) with a still increasing death rate and infection rate, the Governor has ordered a very rapid reopening of businesses, beaches, and recreation. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/24/opinion/coronavirus-covid-19-georgia-reopen.html We will see in the next month, the wisdom or not of this decision.
Some hard hit states on the East Coast, and the industrial Midwest are making their economic reopening decisions regionally, based on the “science” of a virus about which we as yet understand very little. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other states in the Northeast, for example, are coordinating their reopening policies. https://www.wbur.org/bostonomix/2020/04/13/massachusetts-northeast-states-compact-covid-19-coronavirus
West Coast states with lower infection and death rates are also coordinating their reopening decisions on a regional basis. https://abc7news.com/health/2-more-states-join-western-states-pact-to-reopen/6132833/ While we now know that the West Coast states were quicker off the mark in issuing stay at home orders and social distancing restrictions with quantifiable success in slowing the spread; we will see soon whether they can restart their economies while maintaining the same record of strong success in assuring their population’s health and safety.
Meanwhile, the food lines grow; economic stimulus checks meant for small businesses end up in the hands of the already well-endowed; the UI checks just don't arrive for hard pressed households, and the government’s web sites crash under the crush of new applicants. Our social safety nets for Americans, disabled, rusty and struggling by decades of neglect, are hard pressed to meet our citizens’ needs.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 4/28/20