Posted on 04/04/2020 4:46:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
While the Trump administration is forecasting some 100 - 240k or more deaths from the coronavirus scare (and lots of hell) over the next few weeks, South Korea is well on its way in sliding out of its bell curve since the middle of March.
South Korea was also hit pretty hard with this virus, being right next door to China. The people recovering, graphed in the green color, are now also biting deeply into the blue of those who are still sick. Those who have died are colored in red in between the green and the blue. Officially, as of April 3rd, about 10,062 were hit with the virusand 174 died, with more than 6,021 who have now recovered and some 3,979 who are still sick.
Everyone is still working and schools are in session. How did they do this?
I have been in and out of South Korea several times over the last number of years, and I do have a contact friend there who openly said the following without any fear, "This is not a deadly virus. Even though everyone is saying that, that’s because they aren’t able to get a handle on it."
So how is it that the South Koreans got a handle on this virus without stopping the economy or shutting down the country? South Korea has a crowded population of some 52 million people crammed into a geographical location about the size of Indiana, a perfect situation for a pandemic to spread – but it didn't. And yes, when I flew in and out of Korea, it was also very apparent they took communicable diseases seriously, particularly at airports. Health is a very much part of their daily routine.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I fail to see why we don’t follow the South Korean example?
What I read from this:
1. This happens sometimes in SK so they are prepared
2. Putting people into concentration camps keeps the disease from spreading.
3. Getting people to accept the idea of concentration camps really helps
there were forced quarantines...gps surveiliance..random temp checks in restaurants ..2500 dollar fines...heavy handed, but it seems to have worked.
What’s happening here is that we have no idea how many people have recovered. We don’t have a clue as to how many had sub-clinical or asymptomatic cases. The number given today is 12 thousand vs 257 thousand active cases. I am guessing that our herd immunity is far higher than anyone suspects and our case rate will begin to fall soon.
We had to have “nipped it in the bud”, which we couldn’t because we had Obama test kits that didn’t work.
We had empty Obama shelves.
TL;DR - Liberals, yet again, caused the economic disaster with their impeachment games and liberal Democrat governors reacted with authoritarian measures rather than educate the public.
Let’s count off reasons why we can’t follow South Korea’s example..
1) Governors already pulled the stay at home orders. We’re pretty much locked into that - still no public standard when those orders are lifted either. There’s some dates tossed around, but those dates quickly become ‘until it is safe...’
2) The US has about 3 times as many critical care beds as South Korea which gives us a false sense of confidence. We could afford to not test first, whereas South Korea had to leap on it quickly.
3) We have the FDA which has a maze of rules to approve diagnostic tests. The first approved test required a state lab, mailing samples, mailing back results, and typically 6 hours of actual testing in a multi-step process of a limited number of samples per testing cycle. South Korea developed an informative test that takes less than an hour to complete and authorized the ‘nearest able lab’ to process the test. Test results were text back within 24 hours.
4) Enforcement of quarantine is much more difficult in the United States - we can’t even get people with ankle monitors to remain at home as a furlough from jail. We slap hands here. Well, we would, but slapping hands isn’t allowed.
5) South Koreans have masks. In the city, in the country, when a disease starts rolling around (and in many cases, year long) people wear masks immediately. And of course they wash their damn hands. US - well, we wipe our hands on our jeans?
I understand why bad information was used to do stay at home, the attempt to educate the public was, honestly, third choice in just about everything. And liberal states were of course the first to order stay at home.
National leadership could have gone another way; probably would have too had we not had the impeachment circus - wow, was that only 70 days ago? Just over two months since Pelosi ripped the state of the union in half? Feels like a year ago. Had a political circus not undermined the president and the executive office, directives for a quick informative test to be approved by the FDA probably would have gone out. Time for that was in January.
Long and short of it, liberals were playing games when we should have been making preparations. Leadership was curtailed because who wanted to be part of the next impeachment circus? Even do not travel orders drew race cards by the liberals. Imagine how much of early February would have been occupied with a new impeachment hearing if the president had ordered the FDA to approve quick informative testing.
Interesting comments on that site.
It’s either that, or maybe die in an isolation ward drowning on mucous and pus filling up in your failed lungs, ie literally drowning in terror struggling for air. I’ve seen the Wuhan and Milano tapes. Decisions decisions.
Another thing to remember is that South Koreans (as well as people in Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) have social mores that are more cohesive and respectful towards others.
About a couple of weeks ago or so in Toronto, some video game place announced a new release and the place was crowded with people close together and I bet, dollars to doughnuts, you certainly would not see something like that in South Korea or the other places I mentioned.
And here’s another gem of story from Toronto as well:
“A January online petition, organized by a parent of Chinese heritage, asked Toronto-area schools to recommend 17 days of self-isolation for travellers returning from China. Local school board officials dismissed it as ‘racism’ and ‘hatred’ “.
They only put the mild-moderate cases in the camps. Bad cases went to hospitals. But you know how Americans are. If we have the sniffles, we are going to die and need immediate attention.
“South Korea was also hit pretty hard with this virus, being right next door to China.”
Geography fail.
I flew in to South Korea Feb 22nd and flew out Feb 29th... I was in the southern city of Changwon working in Jinhae.. the hotel I stayed at monitored temps coming in. They shut the hotel restaurant down and would only serve to my room. There was a lobby bar that would serve a very limited menu with alcohol/meals but prior to touching anything they filled your hand with hand sanitizer. My work site would not let me on to the facility without checking my temperature. I had to wear a mask while working. The mall in the city had some stores/restaurants open but they were like ghost towns. The Star Bucks in the mall had two customers in it in the middle of the business day. One other important aspect of South Korea... the obesity rate... there are no obese Koreans except the ones that are eating regularly at the McDonalds in their country. The group culture of the country is their strength in this virus.
Right on about Pelosi 'tearing the state of the union in half'!
So yes. I think there are things we can learn from South Korea. But the conditions here are drastically and dramatically different.
Bingo! Major and significant differences!
Would like to know if the drug Chloroquine was used at all there
I suspect there are a lot more “underlying conditions” in the US than in SK.
Be interesting to overlay national IQ with ability to handle this crisis.
Primarily in the U. S. it is a big Dem city problem. New York has 40% of the cases and will likely have 50% of the deaths.
Could be a political major shift as Dems pack the big city. 63,000,000 of them voted for Hillary. Will see how it plays out.
They also have healthier diets and are cleaner.
Americans are fat, stupid, and dirty. There are consequences.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.