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Doesn't "the west" include Australia? I would think Australia and New Zealand count, and they've done a pretty good job. Canada has done a relatively poor job b
by alisonatwork 6y ago
Doesn't "the west" include Australia? I would think Australia and New Zealand count, and they've done a pretty good job. Canada has done a relatively poor job by international standards, but still much better than the US and the UK, who have both been roundly criticized in the Anglosphere.
Although parts of continental Europe are struggling, there are others that have done okay - Norway and Finland, for example.
Outside of "the west", democratic countries in East Asia like Taiwan, South Korea and Japan have done alright too. Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have their political issues, but they're less authoritarian than Vietnam and China - the whole lot of them are doing well. Most of Africa is too. South America, not so much.
So, it's not just about politics, and it's not just about geographic location, and it's not just about climate.
It will be interesting to see the analysis after all this is over. There must be something we can learn from why it was that certain countries failed at managing this virus while others succeeded.
- lostlogin 6y agoI’m a biased New Zealander - not only the above, but both New Zealand and Australia have controlled outbreaks twice. After round one there were breaches (presumably that is the cause in NZ, the origin has not been found) and then new lockdowns followed by control/eradication. Throwing up your hands and claiming it can’t be controlled in the west for some reason is a cop out and is also incorrect.
- dageshi 6y agoI think it's somewhat easier to accomplish that when both countries are islands and the majority of incoming traffic is by air.
- lostlogin 6y agoIt is. Plenty of other islands have done poorly though. Britain and Hawaii come to mind.
- nradov 6y agoHawaii has actually done fairly well with only 155 deaths per 1M residents. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/hawaii/ https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/hawaii/
- lostlogin 6y agoThat isn't all that good compared to AU and NZ. NZ = 5 per million and Au = 35 per million. NZ has a population of 5 million and AU is 25 Million. Hawaii is 1.4 million. Same source.
- luckylion 6y ago> Doesn't "the west" include Australia? I would think Australia and New Zealand count, and they've done a pretty good job. Politically, yes, but being islands with a significant distance to other countries does make them very different. It's somewhat easy to restrict travel to NZ or AU, but it's much harder in Europe. Geographic location seems to play a role. Japan and Taiwan are islands, for all intents and purposes, so is South Korea (a mine field inhibits travel). Singapore and Malaysia have much fewer land-borders. Restricting movement in Europe between countries is more comparable to restricting movement within a country. They don't have hard borders, generally no controls etc. Probably doable, but not without very authoritarian policies which I don't see happening (during the migrant crisis in 2015, the general narrative was that it's literally impossible to enforce borders in Europe).
- sjy 6y ago> Restricting movement in Europe between countries is more comparable to restricting movement within a country. Which is another significant policy that was implemented in Australia, both this year and during the Spanish flu pandemic. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-24/coronavirus-border-closures-reminiscent-of-spanish-flu-shutdown/12085478 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-24/coronavirus-border-cl...
- haihaibye 6y agoIMO it's the ability to be ruled.