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Ventilators are a major shortcoming in the U.S. response to coronavirus only because earlier mitigation efforts (i.e., mass testing) were utterly ignored. Sout

Ventilators are a major shortcoming in the U.S. response to coronavirus only because earlier mitigation efforts (i.e., mass testing) were utterly ignored. South Korea demonstrated clearly that mass testing was the most effective means of isolating carriers, preventing spread, and flattening the curve. Had the U.S. pursued it with the same vigour, the ventilators would never have become a treatment bottleneck. It would be absurd to ramp up production of ventilators early on because if you're taking action that early, you're taking completely different action.

adventured 7y ago
What South Korea did was very impressive and that's the reason so few other nations have gotten their result. I don't believe there is any likely scenario where the US could have accomplished what they did. There is one example of a nation that did what South Korea specifically did, and it's South Korea. They had several attributes unique in combination to South Korea that enabled the speed, cultural response, tech, testing, tracing and manufacturing to come together so well. Nearly every country on the planet similarly failed to follow precisely what South Korea did. For good reason: they couldn't under any circumstances, realistically, because there are few countries like South Korea. There are only about a handful of nations that can, for example, rapidly do the testing (tech, scale, manufacturing, distribution, results, reaction) that South Korea pulled off and so quickly. A mere ~4-6 out of 195 nations can do that on the timeline they did it (and that's in a good scenario). It would have been an extraordinary accomplishment indeed to have such amazing forward-sight to know exactly what was going to happen and to pick the one country to copy the behavior of - and then to move at a lightning speed of manufacturing and cultural behavior the US hasn't seen since the 1940s, based on 20k-40k cases of an infection in China that we didn't know much about. South Korea has a far more nimble system and society than the US does, for all sorts of reasons. The US is a lumbering goliath, South Korea is a faster start-up. It would be impossible for the US to do what they did, on their timeline, at scale. The best you were likely to get out of the US, is much higher scale testing earlier on, we could have done that.
- cameldrv 7y ago
  We absolutely had the tech to get testing up fast. The problem was that the government screwed up making the CDC test and then made every other test illegal. It was pathologically stupid.
  - mrguyorama 7y ago
    It wasn't about stupidity. A reminder that many aspects of the coronavirus response are being farmed out to brand new companies started and run by the Trump family.
- fatbird 7y ago
  I live in British Columbia, Canada, which has, by most measures, had one of the best outcomes after South Korea in terms of 'flattening the curve'. We were unable to do mass testing on the scale of South Korea, but our testing per capita has been among the highest in the world. In addition, we started imposing social distancing measures sooner and more broadly than most. However it's brought about, reducing transmission and flattening the curve is key. Every country had a variety of means to do so--South Korea's wasn't the only one. The regions that did so early and aggressively were successful at massively reducing the body count in comparison to countries like the U.S. that slow-rolled any and all measures for six weeks--thus, the U.S. will have, at best, 60k deaths instead of the 5k it would have had if it had enacted the measures it did eventually take just two weeks earlier.

adventured 7y ago

What South Korea did was very impressive and that's the reason so few other nations have gotten their result. I don't believe there is any likely scenario where the US could have accomplished what they did. There is one example of a nation that did what South Korea specifically did, and it's South Korea. They had several attributes unique in combination to South Korea that enabled the speed, cultural response, tech, testing, tracing and manufacturing to come together so well. Nearly every country on the planet similarly failed to follow precisely what South Korea did. For good reason: they couldn't under any circumstances, realistically, because there are few countries like South Korea. There are only about a handful of nations that can, for example, rapidly do the testing (tech, scale, manufacturing, distribution, results, reaction) that South Korea pulled off and so quickly. A mere ~4-6 out of 195 nations can do that on the timeline they did it (and that's in a good scenario). It would have been an extraordinary accomplishment indeed to have such amazing forward-sight to know exactly what was going to happen and to pick the one country to copy the behavior of - and then to move at a lightning speed of manufacturing and cultural behavior the US hasn't seen since the 1940s, based on 20k-40k cases of an infection in China that we didn't know much about. South Korea has a far more nimble system and society than the US does, for all sorts of reasons. The US is a lumbering goliath, South Korea is a faster start-up. It would be impossible for the US to do what they did, on their timeline, at scale. The best you were likely to get out of the US, is much higher scale testing earlier on, we could have done that.

cameldrv 7y ago
We absolutely had the tech to get testing up fast. The problem was that the government screwed up making the CDC test and then made every other test illegal. It was pathologically stupid.
- mrguyorama 7y ago
  It wasn't about stupidity. A reminder that many aspects of the coronavirus response are being farmed out to brand new companies started and run by the Trump family.
fatbird 7y ago
I live in British Columbia, Canada, which has, by most measures, had one of the best outcomes after South Korea in terms of 'flattening the curve'. We were unable to do mass testing on the scale of South Korea, but our testing per capita has been among the highest in the world. In addition, we started imposing social distancing measures sooner and more broadly than most. However it's brought about, reducing transmission and flattening the curve is key. Every country had a variety of means to do so--South Korea's wasn't the only one. The regions that did so early and aggressively were successful at massively reducing the body count in comparison to countries like the U.S. that slow-rolled any and all measures for six weeks--thus, the U.S. will have, at best, 60k deaths instead of the 5k it would have had if it had enacted the measures it did eventually take just two weeks earlier.