Second Wave: Vietnam reports 1st coronavirus death in renewed outbreak

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese state media reported on Friday the country’s first ever death of a person with the coronavirus as it struggles with a renewed outbreak after 99 days without any cases.

The Thanh Nien newspaper said a 70-year-old man died after contracting the disease while being treated for a kidney illness at a hospital in Da Nang where more than 90 cases have been reported over the past week.

Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the country’s Administration of Medical Examination and Treatment, said there are at least six other elderly patients with COVID-19 currently in critical condition. All have other underlying illnesses, he said.

Vietnam had been seen as a global success story in combating the coronavirus with zero deaths and no cases of local transmission for 99 days. But a week ago an outbreak began at the Da Nang hospital. It has grown to 93 confirmed cases in six parts of the country, including three of the largest cities, and forced authorities to reimpose restrictions.

Well that is not altogether wrong.

Vietnam offers all of the advantages of China (price, abilities, motivation) without the huge threats, which China is already showing clearly.

Vietnam is not interested in global supremacy. It is not a closed society. It just isn’t. There is Youtube here. All the websites China does not allow, are all here. There are a couple, but not many.

Vietnamese want to cooperate with us.

China wants to dominate.

Huge diference.

Việt Nam's Communist government is more like government by enlightened Mafia. Once the old revolutionaries had all died off, the new generation in government proved to be normal Vietnamese, that is to say, practical people. Viết Nam has been trying to be something like an American protectorate since the 1978 war with China that convinced them that their historical instincts are right. They realized that Việt Nam has to develop and grow rich in order to keep from being a Chinese satrapy and through the nineties turned loose first agriculture which very quickly brought the country from near famine to massive export of rice, then they took the chains off of, first international investment, then local commerce. The real turning point was in about 2005 when they decided that Catholics were good Vietnamese, not a foreign body in the Vietnamese culture and decreed that they were citizens with the same status as other Vietnamese because the Catholics had already become the sub rosa business class in the country. Christians have one advantage in the world of commerce not shared by others, they can trust each other generally to carry out contracts outside of family and clan. Once the Catholics got indigenous business cranked up it sparked one cultural advantage of Buddhists over, say Moslems and other pagans,. Buddhists could see what was working for the Catholics and imitate. Việt Nam's economic growth since 200̀5 has been kind of spectacular.

A major influence has been the American government. The Vietnamese government strives to keep America pleased and while Clinton and Bush were in office they leaned hard on them to loosen up on the people and much of the standard Communist mesh of restrictions and surveillance fell away or was ignored. There was some backsliding when Obama was president back here because Obama despises the Vietnamese because of Việt Nam's determined effort at friendship with America. He ignored or insulted them. People started keeping their mouths shut outside of their homes again. With trump it is much more relaxed. He understands how things work and knows that Việt Nam is an asset for America.

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