Countries that have successfully controlled the virus

[Cam77]

... so far. I’m thinking countries which had high numbers relative to their population but, in contrast to the vast majority of other countries, actually managed to get and stay on top of things. Which countries would meet that criteria? Well, from brief look at stats I think certainly China and South Korea. Possibly Malaysia. And that’s about it.

China, for example, had cases in the low thousands for quite a while but has basically not gone above double figures since the beginning of March. The spike in Beijing a month or two ago was no more than an isolated puddle in the end.

At the beginning of July, 10 million students in China safely sat their university entrance exams (their A-levels) and the country has been virtually mask free for a good two months. People are shopping and eating in restaurants, going to domestic leisure spots etc mask free across the vast majority of the country and have been doing so for a couple of months now.

(As an aside, it’s interesting how the Western media has gone pretty silent on China in this regard, only occasionally showing a picture of people wearing masks in Beijing - could it be because that is the only city among China’s 200 cities where masks are still commonplace?Surely not!)

Anyway, I’d be interested to hear from anyone, particularly those who are/were recently living in China and S.Korea recently, what in your opinion allowed their government/society to succeed in controlling it. What did they get right that every other country seems to have failed to do?

Very much doubt the statistics from China are remotely true. They also had a much stricter lockdown, welding apartment buildings doors etc.

Widespread access and compliance with masks will have made a difference for places like South Korea and Taiwan though.

what in your opinion allowed their government/society to succeed in controlling it.

No human rights? Army on the street forcing people into their homes? Compulsory tracking by smart phone?

I wouldn’t believe a word that comes from China.

Chinese people in the Wuhan district have said that those numbers aren't remotely true. Although admittedly the authorities did successfully stop it spreading to other regions. But we surely wouldn't want to use their measures, boarding up apartment blocks etc?

I wouldn’t believe a word that comes from China.

This, 100%.

I'm not from any of those countries but I really do not think that comparing the UK to countries where the government has totalitarian control is a good thing.

We have democracy and human rights. It's a slippery slope when we start lauding these countries as good examples to the world.

What about Taiwan? I have family there and they're living life as normal. Masks and temp checks everywhere, but no restriction on socialising, school, working, etc. They never had a large infection rate, they just controlled things from the start.

I wouldn't believe anything China says.

I agree the numbers in Wuhan and Hebei are questionable, but the general picture from China now is absolutely factual. I have thousands of online contacts, including people of half a dozen nationalities in China who confirm this. You cannot fake China’s (relative to the West) economic recovery. You cannot fake 10 million students sitting exams at the beginning of July. Or the hundreds of photos I see on my wechat every day of people going about and stuff mask free.

So, yes, Hubei’s figures may have been substantially underreported, but they’ve done magnitudes better than the US , UK and 100 other countries at controlling it after a very dodgy first few weeks. Of course, S.Korea has also done a brilliant job. I think a lot of it is down to fierce contact tracing but wondered it anyone who has been living there could shed any more light.

... as opposed to just the baseless antiChina stuff this thread has offered so far, 😂

Also the reason the numbers in Hubei are debatable is not because of some tinfoil hat Western conspiracy but because the virus had the city under siege. There has been nothing like it in modern times. They just couldn’t cope and people were dying in their homes or on hospital floors.

The difference between China/S.Korea and everywhere else is that after the initial explosion, they got their shit together and ensured it didn’t replicate over the entire country.

By contrast, two months after the tragedy of Wuhan, Boris and co were still promoting mass events and doing maskfree tours of hospitals. Even today Britain’s contact tracing is substandard as is its quarantine overseeing procedures.

China has a totalitarian attitude, there is no way people in the UK would comply if this was even tried.

Our freedoms and our rights and our lack of fear of the state have actually been to our detriment in this time period. We see on MN and in real life people who disagree with lockdown rules. Some will still abide but others won’t. I imagine the risk of being sealed in a flat, imprisoned, shot or severely punished would stop most.

The Bournemouth beach fiasco, no one worried they would get shot, or imprisoned. People want to live without fear it’s great but really it’s had a cost.

My colleague was in China a few years ago when there was a really heavy snowfall. Hundreds of people were out shovelling the snow they just did it. Assume there must be some sort of requirement if your able bodied to just get in with it. How many people would just get on with it like that in the UK if it was a requirement.

Choices are wonderful but people are weak and self centred and make poor choices often

China tells lies sometimes.

I am sure it is about compliance.
So many people are not wearing masks in the UK. Shop keepers don't have to so they can breath all over the stock all day, medical exemption is allowing people to take the piss andnot wear them withour being confronted (not saying we should remove the exemptions btw).
Yesterday I was in a hair salon with 3 stylist. One had a visor on, the other two had masks hanging from their ears but didn't actually put them on, even when with clients. It was hot so I can see why they wouldn't want to wear a mask but they took no precaution at all. I was there for 3 hours and they didn't wear the mask, wash their hands or sanitise them or their workstation after clients (with the exception of the lady who was working on my hair thankfully otherwise I'd have left!)

@Valkadin
People in Britain (and across the world) have been very willing to make huge sacrifices to potentially save the lives of vulnerable strangers. The “mistake” Boris and co made at the beginning was to think that people “couldn’t” go for a months without the pub. That British people “couldn’t” wear a mask to a shop. That they “couldn’t” accept a temporary 20% fall in GDP to keep hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people alive. In fact they were happy to make those sacrifices. Had they been told such sacrifices were necessary earlier, lives would have been saved and we’d been a much stronger position with the virus heading into Septermber..

I'm not sure China is a role model in any regard, given they're currently committing genocide.

@Valkadin people do sometimes make poor choices. That doesn't mean we should have those choices removed from us by the government. That's a frightening notion.

The figures from China won't be true.
I expect they lop the odd 5000 cases and 1.3 million tests from their figures like other countries...

Don't believe the statistics. Even the ones from Europe aren't comparable. A covid19 death is counted differently in different places

Ps also people there wear masks, even little kids, did before the pandemic as soon as they get the sniffles, now all the time.

Everywhere in Australia apart from Victoria is doing really well. My own state hasn’t had a case not connected to a known cluster for over 100 days. Of course the down side is that state borders are closed and this is having big impacts especially for those living close to the borders. Some towns even straddle borders which has been a logistical nightmare.

Many us us are living a nearly normal living life. Where I live school was only shut for one week. Masks are not required. I’m very aware that I’m lucky to be living in a bit of a bubble at the moment and it change at any time.

Why are people so insistent on China covering up numbers. Posters like @Cam77 have actual experience of how it is there, from friends and contacts. I do too. My WeChat feed shows life as normal in Chinese cities.

In fact they were happy to make those sacrifices.

Is that a joke?

A lot of people suffered terribly under lockdown, there was nothing happy about it.

And lots of people have not been willing to make any sacrifices at all.

Anyway, I’d be interested to hear from anyone, particularly those who are/were recently living in China and S.Korea recently, what in your opinion allowed their government/society to succeed in controlling it. What did they get right that every other country seems to have failed to do?

...

I have thousands of online contacts, including people of half a dozen nationalities in China who confirm this.

Why don't you ask one of your half a dozen contacts who are actually in China?

Anyway, from what I can see, places that acted early, made masks accessible and affordable, with a public who didn't mind wearing the masks (probably as the countries they are in had past experience with SARS), and had contact tracing systems have done better than here, where the early advice was over 70s probably shouldn't go on cruises and wash your hands while signing 'happy birthday'.

Ha ha China have it under control. You do realise that China has not told the truth about anything and they are certainly not telling the truth about the numbers involved

Added to which China, South Korea, Malaysia etc are used to wearing masks, doing as they are told by their Government and have the military as well as the police enforcing any rules, plus track and trace worked and people had enforced quarantine.

We are a country that doesn’t like to be told ,what to do and lots are not prepared to follow the guidelines and quarantine isn’t being enforced because the civil liberty groups would be out in full force

@GoshHashana

Because they weren't honest at the start, which meant other countries lost time to plan. They did the same with SARS.

www.bbc.com/news/world-52573137

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/09/sars-whistleblower-doctor-under-house-arrest-in-china-family-confirms-jiang-yangyong