Whenever someone backs up Trump's claim that China not being transparent is responsible for the great number of cases and deaths in this country, I point to South Korea. The U.S. and South Korea reported their first case on the same date. Yet the trajectory of number of cases and deaths is vastly different in the two countries. Was China only non-transparent to the U.S.? Did China give South Korea more heads up? The difference in the two country is mostly the difference in the competence of the two governments.
But not all the difference is in the two governments. The people of South Korea, like those in most of Asia, are much more community oriented. In our country, individual freedom trumps everything else. In Korea, it is the good of the community. While we have protest about lock downs and people beating and killing workers in stores for trying to enforce the use of masks, the Koreans are compiling with all the restrictions. There is no complaint about testing and contact tracing which stopped the virus on its track early on.
This past week there were 100 cases in Korea that was started when people went to bars in a certain district. The outcry was deafening. People were outraged that these young people were so careless. One grandparent was infected by his grandson. There are concerns that since some of these were gay bars that there would be discrimination against the people who were there. But contact tracing went on anyway. I think there would be more worry about privacy issue here in the U.S. which may slow down the contact tracing. Of course, we don't even have a contact tracing system set up in the first place.
Of course, the issue in this case is not whether the people involved were at a gay bar. The issue is crowded condition and lack of social distancing. Just like the first surge back in January which occurred at churches. So if the religious right in Korea makes this about gays, they will be wrong. But back in January, after some reluctance the church goers did cooperate with the government, just as the bar patrons are today. In the U.S. there would be lawsuits about religious freedom and privacy. There would be a lack of cooperation. So while the government action is very important, ordinary citizens must do their part if a country is going to defeat this virus.
There is no absolute freedom in this world. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices of individual freedom for the good of the community. Are these sacrifices the right thing to do? How do we know if the government just want to control us? It is not possible to always be sure. But we should listen to neutral experts who have scientific knowledge and no political agenda. Koreans and other Asians are willing to listen to their experts, we should listen to our experts and do the right thing.
I think the proclamation that we are back is irresponsible and Trump is stoking things to where his followers are being careless. I'm a little surprised to see so many being selfish walking without masks and making a big deal that their freedoms are taken away. I guess it's an American mindset and we've gotten fat and sassy because we as a society hasn't had to make sacrifices like those in the Great Depression.
ReplyDeleteI get that people want to go about their business and get back to work. But I think that people don't grasp that their actions affect others because this virus is airborne.
It is pretty much fact that the administration downplayed this virus back in at least January and probably could have done better, but I don't know if the arrogance of the office thought that we could withstand the spread because it didn't want the economy to take a hit. But we are seeing that because things were not stopped early enough that the economy took an even bigger hit. Now, Trump wants to get the economy rolling again. We all do, but at the sacrifice of lives? I am not sure he is listening to his experts and like a tyrant, he's firing people who don't agree with him. We would be upset if we saw this happen anywhere else in the world, so his followers are turning a blind eye as usual. There is a barber in Owosso Michigan that opened up his business a few weeks ago because for some reason, he was not able to get unemployment. This is a 77 year old man, who is probably drawing social security, who can't sustain a lifestyle I guess. I don't know his situation, but he felt compelled to risk his life and the life of others to get back to work. Though his license has been pulled now he is still going to keep working. I'm interested to see if it all was worth it since he'll most likely be fined. There are pictures of him wearing his mask upside down and not wearing a mask and no gloves. Most of his customers who apparently were so vain that they needed haircuts were not wearing masks.
I know those guys will argue that masks don't do anything. Maybe this is the case, by why risk your life and the lives of others that you come in contact with? It's total selfishness.
I heard that there will be a rally at the state capitol this week that they will be giving out free haircuts. It'll be interesting to see if these people will be using disinfectants on the scissors and combs. Who is going to clean up the hair that's been cut? I'm sure they will just leave it all on the ground and leave.
What's going to happen when there is no vaccine at the end of the year like Trump says? Well, I bet he'll say that he didn't say end of the year or that he was distracted with the election to get it done.
-LBOAYM
Have we become a nation of selfish people? When the guy from the bar infected his grandparent in South Korea, the country was mortified. Here we have the Lt. governor of Texas who said that some deaths among old folks, the most likely to die from this disease, is acceptable in order to save the economy. Now that we see kids get a Kawasaki like syndrome from the virus, are we going to sacrifice the kids too?
ReplyDeleteYou are right that by not taking action earlier, we are going to take a bigger hit in the economy in the long run. As I said, we got the first case at same time as Korea. But the Korean baseball league has been back for two weeks. I think their soccer league and professional women golf are also back. We are nowhere yet near starting our sports leagues. And I don't think we will be as safe as the Koreans when we do start.
I am skeptical about the vaccine hype by Trump. If the vaccine comes out less than 12 months from when they started working on it, I will not be first in line to get it. I would have to research to see if they skipped steps to expedite the process. There are reason why this is usually so slow. If they skip or go too fast on certain steps, I would have problem with it. Just look at the test kits the CDC put out in the beginning. Going too fast makes mistakes more likely even with much simpler things like a test. But what Trump will do in October is to say that the drug companies, who are being subsidized by the government to speed up the process, promise that the vaccine will be ready by end of the year. This may help his election effort whether or not the vaccine will actually come out at end of the year in a safe and effective form.