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> Literally nothing suggests that, no other country in the world has any statistics to back this up New Zealand. Taiwan. Vietnam. South Korea.

w0utert 6y ago
Yeah it's a lot easier if you are an island, go into super strict lock-down, and can do super-efficient (and privacy invasive) contact tracing before the number of infections even goes over 1 in 100K, like in the countries you mentioned. .. That doesn't contradict anything I said though, I was only commenting on the US situation and whether it could have been contained by 'just wearing masks'.
- _Microft 6y ago
  To all intents and purposes, the USA are an island. They have just two land borders with neighbours they have somewhat acceptable relations with. I think the real issue they have is the unwillingness to cooperate with the other two measures: lockdowns (clashes with "freedom", at least temporarily) to reduce the number of cases to a range where they can be contact traced and then to allow contact tracing (I would guess this is because of a lack of trust in the government) to actually find people that might become infectious before they actually do. BTW "Just wearing masks" is not the solution but part of it.
- jmull 6y ago
  Few think wearing masks alone could contain the virus. (Be wary of inventing quotes to make your argument.) It’s just the simplest, easiest thing most people can do that is effective. A no-brainer first step that slows down the spread, and consequently saves lives and/or lessens the need for harsher measures, like lockdowns.
yread 6y ago
Mongolia, Thailand
- geomark 6y ago
  To put some numbers to it - Thailand: population 70 million, number of confirmed cases < 4,000, number of deaths 60, not an island - borders Myanmar on the west, Laos north and northeast, Cambodia east, Malaysia south.
  - yread 6y ago
    They were also the first country outside China to detect COVID19 patient
    - geomark 6y ago
      Yes, and they had millions of mainland Chinese tourists in 2019 and into early 2020. Amazing they did not get buried by covid-19.

w0utert 6y ago

Yeah it's a lot easier if you are an island, go into super strict lock-down, and can do super-efficient (and privacy invasive) contact tracing before the number of infections even goes over 1 in 100K, like in the countries you mentioned. .. That doesn't contradict anything I said though, I was only commenting on the US situation and whether it could have been contained by 'just wearing masks'.

_Microft 6y ago
To all intents and purposes, the USA are an island. They have just two land borders with neighbours they have somewhat acceptable relations with. I think the real issue they have is the unwillingness to cooperate with the other two measures: lockdowns (clashes with "freedom", at least temporarily) to reduce the number of cases to a range where they can be contact traced and then to allow contact tracing (I would guess this is because of a lack of trust in the government) to actually find people that might become infectious before they actually do. BTW "Just wearing masks" is not the solution but part of it.
jmull 6y ago
Few think wearing masks alone could contain the virus. (Be wary of inventing quotes to make your argument.) It’s just the simplest, easiest thing most people can do that is effective. A no-brainer first step that slows down the spread, and consequently saves lives and/or lessens the need for harsher measures, like lockdowns.

yread 6y ago

Mongolia, Thailand

geomark 6y ago
To put some numbers to it - Thailand: population 70 million, number of confirmed cases < 4,000, number of deaths 60, not an island - borders Myanmar on the west, Laos north and northeast, Cambodia east, Malaysia south.
- yread 6y ago
  They were also the first country outside China to detect COVID19 patient
  - geomark 6y ago
    Yes, and they had millions of mainland Chinese tourists in 2019 and into early 2020. Amazing they did not get buried by covid-19.