6 ms·
China's can more effectively control people's movements than the US, which helps with containment. But at the same time, as in the US, reported infection rates
by danans 7y ago
China's can more effectively control people's movements than the US, which helps with containment.
But at the same time, as in the US, reported infection rates are probably much lower than the actual rates, since both countries' administrations have an interest in minimizing the reported rates, or when that fails, minimizing the timeline for normalization of life.
Public health authorities are the only people who have no incentive to exaggerate or suppress information.
- gowld 7y agoUS has some incentive to undercount, but US has lots of semi independent state/local governments and non government epidemiologists. In China, province/local government leaders would be jailed for speaking against the party line.
- danans 7y agoI agree that the saving grace in the US is that we have independent state and local officials. Kudos especially to Ohio's governor for bucking the party line and declaring a lockdown in a timely way. Local officials have credibility right now from being the actual local boots on the ground. Their voices have cornered the administration into admitting, however begrudgingly, the scale of the problem. Given the administration's incentives, it's good that the institution aggregating the numbers right now is John's Hopkins, and not the administration's VP-led task force.