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A lot to unpack here. China's response to Covid is maybe not the best, but Taiwan provides an excellent example of how a democracy can responsibly react to a cr

A lot to unpack here. China's response to Covid is maybe not the best, but Taiwan provides an excellent example of how a democracy can responsibly react to a crisis. The author's point that western governments have become woefully ineffective can be seen in other examples. A lot of civil institutions in the west are languishing and this should be improved regardless of what's happening in some foreign country. Finally, the Sweden example is pretty demonstrably false. Compare the death rate between Denmark and Sweden (very similar cultures) and you will see the effect of doing nothing. The reality is that the US has broad bipartisan consensus to do very little about Covid and consequently we have seen very little progress in putting a stop to the disease and getting things running properly again. There are loose regulations, but they are not enforced. Most of the country's response has been purely voluntary on the part of citizens.

chrisco255 6y ago
When you actually dig into the deaths in Sweden, the vast majority were in the over 75 demographic, which is vulnerable to any disease or cause of death. They had several early outbreaks in nursing homes and assisted living facilities and once they got those under control, the virus fizzled out on its own among the younger population. There are currently only 13 hospitalizations in the whole country at this point in time. Sweden's economy has suffered the least in the Euro zone. There's also no great reason to not compare Sweden to France, UK and Spain. While Sweden and Denmark may have Scandinavian culture, it's not as if Covid discriminates based on culture. If you want to make some sort of genetic argument, you're going to have to back that up with some data and studies. Hospitalizations in the U.S. are currently plummeting, we've never hit anywhere near capacity for hospitalization, and the virus is fizzling out on its own. Each state has gotten to choose its own policy for Covid-19 (as they should, by the way), and some states have banned gatherings of more than 8 people, mandated masks in public, issued various stay at home orders, jailed business owners for daring to reopen, etc. Some states like South Dakota have never issued any restrictions whatsoever. There is no clear pattern in the data for policy, between countries or states. Indeed, there's a lot of confounding factors that make it difficult to infer the effectiveness of any region's policy choices. Taiwan, for example. Are their results on account of that they are an island nation with tight inflow and outflow controls or the fact that SARS1 and other weaker coronaviruses already disseminated in the population and therefore a higher amount of the population have natural immunity from fighting off a similar disease? If they haven't developed herd immunity, are they simply kicking the can down the road in the hopes a vaccine works? If not, will they forever be isolating visitors in 14 day quarantine to avoid an outbreak? That doesn't sound sustainable to me.
hartator 6y ago
> China's response to Covid is maybe not the best, but Taiwan provides an excellent Taiwan is not China.
- cttet 6y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan

chrisco255 6y ago

When you actually dig into the deaths in Sweden, the vast majority were in the over 75 demographic, which is vulnerable to any disease or cause of death. They had several early outbreaks in nursing homes and assisted living facilities and once they got those under control, the virus fizzled out on its own among the younger population. There are currently only 13 hospitalizations in the whole country at this point in time. Sweden's economy has suffered the least in the Euro zone. There's also no great reason to not compare Sweden to France, UK and Spain. While Sweden and Denmark may have Scandinavian culture, it's not as if Covid discriminates based on culture. If you want to make some sort of genetic argument, you're going to have to back that up with some data and studies. Hospitalizations in the U.S. are currently plummeting, we've never hit anywhere near capacity for hospitalization, and the virus is fizzling out on its own. Each state has gotten to choose its own policy for Covid-19 (as they should, by the way), and some states have banned gatherings of more than 8 people, mandated masks in public, issued various stay at home orders, jailed business owners for daring to reopen, etc. Some states like South Dakota have never issued any restrictions whatsoever. There is no clear pattern in the data for policy, between countries or states. Indeed, there's a lot of confounding factors that make it difficult to infer the effectiveness of any region's policy choices. Taiwan, for example. Are their results on account of that they are an island nation with tight inflow and outflow controls or the fact that SARS1 and other weaker coronaviruses already disseminated in the population and therefore a higher amount of the population have natural immunity from fighting off a similar disease? If they haven't developed herd immunity, are they simply kicking the can down the road in the hopes a vaccine works? If not, will they forever be isolating visitors in 14 day quarantine to avoid an outbreak? That doesn't sound sustainable to me.

hartator 6y ago

> China's response to Covid is maybe not the best, but Taiwan provides an excellent Taiwan is not China.

cttet 6y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan