I've been listening to and reading various analyses of how other countries have been handling the COVID-19 outbreak. Take South Korea, for example. That country didn't hear about the outbreak any sooner than any other country, so whatever one can say about the WHO, South Korea had the same information as every other country to deal with and the same amount of time to take action.
As of today, April 20th, South Korea has had 5 deaths/million population. The USA data shows 128/M and Canada 45/M
How South Korea Managed to Flatten the COVID-19 Curve. Testing, contact tracing, attention to detail and leadership have helped get pandemic under control.
South Korea did this with a combination of following up on lessons learned from an earlier viral outbreak back in 2013, early preparation and some pretty impressive policies that were enforced right from the beginning.
I've noticed a number of comments and articles claiming that Canada was slow to act, perhaps too accepting of WHO recommendations, and so on. My challenge is for people to read this article, carefully, and see what South Korea did.
Now, let's imagine that the Canadian government and every provincial government had taken exactly those steps and taken them as early as South Korea did. My feeling is that there would have been massive screaming and protests about government overreach, excessive invasion of privacy, civil disobedience and all the rest. Perhaps not the same as what's going on now in the USA, but I'm sure you know what I mean.
If you feel that Canada was too slow to act, or that the WHO didn't warn us early enough, or that China delayed warning the rest of the world (this is at least partly true), explain how South Korea managed to do what it did. And would you have gone along with actions like those in South Korea? Be honest.
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