South Korea has, I think, a culture that is very attuned to biological threats. Their neighbor to the west (China) has abominable market habits where they slaughter and sell just about anything that moves, causing outbreak after outbreak of deadly diseases, like avian influenzas H5N1 and H7N9 and the coronavirus SARS. Their neighbor to the north has a madman leader who is always threatening nuclear, biological, or chemical doom to the south. Thus, Koreans are always aware of threats in a way that we are not. When I went to Korea, every single tour guide talked about the situation with North Korea. Really, they live with threats that most Americans can’t even understand.
It is within this context that South Korea was able to effect quarantines, social distancing, etc., without the government having to put much force into the recommendations. Because the Koreans were very dedicated to doing whatever they can to stop the spread of a dangerous disease. Contrast that to America, where a number of people dismiss Covid-19 as a government conspiracy and do not take the threat seriously at all.
But there were LOTS of people that were voluntarily doing things to lower risk. That meant, in fact, that the shutdown orders were almost exclusively affecting people who would be cut off at their knees economically by the time those orders came around. Normally, in an economic crisis we encourage people to go out and spend money. We know our society needs that to survive.
We heard lots of businesses were coming up with creative solutions, restaurants using only every other table, etc. But suddenly, governors just said, no, sorry, everything is just shut down.
Our country is one that thrives on creative solutions bubbling up from the bottom up. Not from government sitting in an ivory tower barking out orders. There should be a partnership here where government can provide health and safety advice and businesses can implement them in creative ways.
And, no, every individual does not have to comply with every recommendation 100% of the time for things to be a success. The viral spread hitting a lot of stopgaps along the way will slow it down enough. It doesn’t need every single person to be perfectly vigilant all of the time. The government needs to focus on locating and quarantining the sick. That is the long-accepted historical method and the cornerstone of South Korea’s highly successful, low-cost containment strategy.