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Thank you.

My own calculations show that the death rate would be much, much higher by now without the quarantine measures. We’ve successfully decreased disease spread by 95% over what it would have been without quarantine.

I hate to think of the consequences if people go back to their old behaviors, which they are likely to do if they continue to believe some of the ridiculous conspiracies instead of the actual data.

We aren’t over this yet.

[I hate to think of the consequences if people go back to their old behaviors, which they are likely to do if they continue to believe some of the ridiculous conspiracies instead of the actual data.

We aren’t over this yet.]

What US expat and former Hong Kong resident Fai Mao pointed out is that while NYC and HK have roughly similar population densities, HK’s death numbers are two orders of magnitude smaller. He attributes it to almost universal masking.

My impression, from a swing through Hong Kong decades ago, is that Hong Kong is far more crowded. Much of its craggy geography remains undeveloped. I’ve read that small parcels of (what used to be Crown) land is auctioned annually to developers, as part of the city’s long term revenue plan. Whereas NYC is pretty much built up from one end to the other with parks and cemeteries being the exceptions. Even NYC’s car registrations are triple Hong Kong’s.

So people are more spread out in NYC and yet they have literally 100x the dead in Hong Kong. I find it hard to believe that universal masking isn’t the reason Hong Kong’s numbers are so much lower despite the fact that it has continued operating on a business-as-usual basis throughout the epidemic, with limited restrictions on restaurants and bars, as well as border controls and quarantine measures for people coming into the territory.