{"id":6491,"date":"2021-01-09T08:01:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T08:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=148005"},"modified":"2021-01-09T08:01:56","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T08:01:56","slug":"infamous-us-record-during-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/09\/infamous-us-record-during-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Infamous US Record during Covid-19 Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
A health worker conducts a nucleic acid test on a resident in Chengdu, in western China’s Sichuan province, on December 8, 2020, after new Covid-19 cases were detected in the city. Almost from the start, China has responded rapidly to outbreaks. Photo: AFP \/ STR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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December 11, 2020, is another December day that should \u201clive in infamy\u201d in the United States. On that day total US deaths due to Covid-19 surpassed<\/a> the 291,557<\/a> American combat fatalities in World War II. The European Union saw much the same grim toll, with more than 300,000 dead. (See figure.)\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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Graph constructed by the author using the open FT Covid-19 tracking site<\/a> from the Financial Times<\/em>, which the reader can readily access and use. Note that this is a semilogarithmic plot that on visual inspection enhances<\/em> the cumulative death rate (deaths per 100,000 population) for countries with low numbers and minimizes it for those with high numbers.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It did not have to be this way.\u00a0China provides a striking and instructive contrast.\u00a0It was the first to recognize this strange new virus when it appeared in the Wuhan outbreak late in December 2019. China faced a \u201cclosed-book exam,\u201d and had to write its own playbook.<\/p>\n

A year later as 2020 drew to a close, China had only a total of 4,764<\/a> Covid-19 deaths, an extraordinary achievement given the country\u2019s population of 1.4 billion, 18% of humanity. On New Year\u2019s, massive crowds came out in Wuhan and elsewhere in China to celebrate \u2013 in stark contrast to a deserted Times Square in New York City.\u00a0The playbook China wrote proved remarkably successful.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s success was achieved by containment.\u00a0First came the very tight and demanding lockdown in Wuhan, a city of 11 million, and in surrounding Hubei province with nearly 60 million. The Wuhan lockdown ended in 76 days, which now seems mercifully brief to those of us who have endured the last year of suffering and death in the United States.<\/p>\n

Less severe but demanding measures were put in place for 700 million people, half of China\u2019s population. A superb and honest account<\/a> of life under these measures outside Wuhan by Peter Hessler can be found in The New Yorker<\/em>, \u201cLife on lockdown in China: forty-five days of avoiding the coronavirus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The measures, though challenging, were not as severe as often portrayed in the West. The World Health Organization report on the pandemic in China issued in March pointed out that the containment effort was made possible by \u201cthe deep commitment of the Chinese people to collective action.\u201d<\/p>\n

And to this observer, it seems a determined and competent national leadership, basing its decisions on the best scientific input, was another key element.<\/p>\n

China soon \u201cflattened the curve,\u201d meaning it had brought the virus under control (See figure). Testing, tracing, quarantining and treatment were carried out vigorously whenever even a few new cases were detected.<\/p>\n

An example reported<\/a> in the New England Journal of Medicine<\/em> was the experience in Qingdao, China, a city of 9 million. On October 1, three cases of Covid-19 were detected. A total of 4,900 testing stations were set up in the city and suburban areas.\u00a0In 10 days, 10.9 million people were tested, and a total of 12 cases were found and treated.\u00a0The virus was contained.<\/p>\n

Initially, however, in December 2019, things got off to a rocky start.\u00a0Confusion, denial and poor, perhaps criminal, decisions were made in the first one to two weeks of the outbreak in Wuhan.\u00a0Local officials responsible for this were dismissed.<\/p>\n