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How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

npr.org

41–50 of 287 posts

Re: How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

#42
post #7

Another effing article that completely ignores Taiwan... I’m no taiwanophile, but why is it that a first-world democracy with a successful strategy against Covid is being completely ignored by media? https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689 Taiwan has huge flows of Chinese people, yet no outbreak. Maybe it’s a good thing they are not recognised by the WHO?

Just to be clear, Taiwan did not have huge flows of mainland Chinese soon after the outbreak though. They closed the border to all travelers with PRC passports in mid-February. They did take some drastic measures that have worked.

> They closed the border to all travelers with PRC passports in mid-February

And before that they had plenty of people coming in from China with active Covid infections - returning from New Year including people from Hubei.

The US enacted their travel ban to China on 31st Jan, yet that hasn’t helped the US...

Now Taiwan is getting cases from other countries (returning citizens and foreign migrant workers) e.g. yesterday: “Meanwhile, the 15 patients deemed to have contracted COVID-19 overseas all returned to Taiwan in the period March 16-23. The countries they had visited were the U.S., the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Spain, Malaysia, Monaco and Mexico.”

Taiwan is still allowing foreign migrant workers to enter the country, as they need them for their economy.

Re: How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

#43
post #3

I think comparing Singapore, a tiny, highly urbanized island nation, with the US, a continent size country with a vast number of points of entry, is a little bit apples to oranges. Don't get me wrong, I do think that some Asian countries took great measures to contain the virus, and some western countries failed to do so, but I doubt the same measures would be equally as effective everywhere. This is relevant because…

Why is it anytime usa screws up its because its a diverse nation that's different from all the other nations?

Maybe sometimes the USA is just incompetent and usually it can get away with being incompetent without consequence because nobody wants to poke the 800lb gorilla, but sometimes consequences do happen.

Re: How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

#44
post #21

Again another article that doesn't even mention the use of masks and hand sanitizer. The cost of the epidemic now goes into the trillions, self-made cotton masks are cheap compared to the economic damage. They can be disinfected in boiling water and if everybody uses them they will help to stop the spreading of the virus. In all the countries mentioned in the article people wear masks when in public, often just again…

I've read repeatedly (and heard on the radio several times) that wearing a mask if YOU are infected will help protect other people, but if you are not infected then it has no known protective effect ie. is not thought to be any more protective than not wearing one. Do you have any evidence to back up you talk of masks? (And if YOU are infected you should not be out anyway) Edit: I was thinking of non-medical situatio…

Wearing mask discourages you from touching your face with your hands.

If someone sneezes at you, even most simple mask will stop at least 50% of viruses. If someone was far away and only a small load reached you, that may be enough to keep you safe.

> (And if YOU are infected you should not be out anyway)

The big problem is to know when you're infected. Mask keeps others safe if you're not aware that you're infected.

Some reports say that you start distributing viruses pretty much immediately after getting it yourself. Even if all contacts (which is far from guaranteed) get traced and you get checked and/or isolated in a day or two, you'd be already spreading viruses for that timeframe.

Re: How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

#45
post #21

Again another article that doesn't even mention the use of masks and hand sanitizer. The cost of the epidemic now goes into the trillions, self-made cotton masks are cheap compared to the economic damage. They can be disinfected in boiling water and if everybody uses them they will help to stop the spreading of the virus. In all the countries mentioned in the article people wear masks when in public, often just again…

I've read repeatedly (and heard on the radio several times) that wearing a mask if YOU are infected will help protect other people, but if you are not infected then it has no known protective effect ie. is not thought to be any more protective than not wearing one. Do you have any evidence to back up you talk of masks? (And if YOU are infected you should not be out anyway) Edit: I was thinking of non-medical situatio…

You do NOT know if you are infected. Asymptomatic carriers is a major problem for COVID-19. A figure I saw was about 50% of infections come from them.

Here's evidence and list of 34 science papers backing up the utility of masks in slowing down a viral epidemic:

Thread with charts, articles, link to paper summaries: https://twitter.com/jeremyphoward/status/1242894378441506816

ADDED: Just the list of papers & their brief summaries: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HLrm0pqBN_5bdyysOeoOBX4p...

Re: How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

#46
post #21

Again another article that doesn't even mention the use of masks and hand sanitizer. The cost of the epidemic now goes into the trillions, self-made cotton masks are cheap compared to the economic damage. They can be disinfected in boiling water and if everybody uses them they will help to stop the spreading of the virus. In all the countries mentioned in the article people wear masks when in public, often just again…

I've read repeatedly (and heard on the radio several times) that wearing a mask if YOU are infected will help protect other people, but if you are not infected then it has no known protective effect ie. is not thought to be any more protective than not wearing one. Do you have any evidence to back up you talk of masks? (And if YOU are infected you should not be out anyway) Edit: I was thinking of non-medical situatio…

Many people don't know they are infected and also there is not enough testing capability in many countries. For example Heidi Klum tired to get tested after catching a cold and it took her several days to be accepted for a test. Now she is not exactly your average Joe and would be willing to shell out a few 1000 dollars to get tested.

Unless that situation changes, masks are a good alternative. And yes, only if everybody wears them.

Re: How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

#47
post #7

Another effing article that completely ignores Taiwan... I’m no taiwanophile, but why is it that a first-world democracy with a successful strategy against Covid is being completely ignored by media? https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689 Taiwan has huge flows of Chinese people, yet no outbreak. Maybe it’s a good thing they are not recognised by the WHO?

StraitTimes Panel discussion of "top Covid-19 experts" in Singapore on topic of "the next 3 months: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3w8gu9S3lo

Re: How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

#48
post #21

Again another article that doesn't even mention the use of masks and hand sanitizer. The cost of the epidemic now goes into the trillions, self-made cotton masks are cheap compared to the economic damage. They can be disinfected in boiling water and if everybody uses them they will help to stop the spreading of the virus. In all the countries mentioned in the article people wear masks when in public, often just again…

I've read repeatedly (and heard on the radio several times) that wearing a mask if YOU are infected will help protect other people, but if you are not infected then it has no known protective effect ie. is not thought to be any more protective than not wearing one. Do you have any evidence to back up you talk of masks? (And if YOU are infected you should not be out anyway) Edit: I was thinking of non-medical situatio…

[deleted]

Re: How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

#49

The thing is, South Korea (and many other Asian countries cited as having handled COVID19 relatively well, such as Taiwan, HK, Singapore, Japan) have all learned from the 2003 SARS epidemic and others, while the Western countries did not. This is not just in terms of politics/preparation to disasters, but also in the civilization - in Asia even the most radical and extreme measures are accepted by the population as e…

It might have something to do with people remembering a previous disease outbreak, it might also be primarily a question of how collectivist vs individualist the societies are and how strongly the population follows government suggestions/orders.

Considering that, you'd expect South Korea or Japan to do better than Germany, Germany to do better than the US or Italy. And even within Germany, you'd expect large cities to do worse, with Berlin leading the charge. Would Hamburg be affected as much if it wasn't for their holidays falling right into that time?

Re: How South Korea Reined In The Outbreak Without Shutting Everything Down

#50
post #21

Again another article that doesn't even mention the use of masks and hand sanitizer. The cost of the epidemic now goes into the trillions, self-made cotton masks are cheap compared to the economic damage. They can be disinfected in boiling water and if everybody uses them they will help to stop the spreading of the virus. In all the countries mentioned in the article people wear masks when in public, often just again…

I've read repeatedly (and heard on the radio several times) that wearing a mask if YOU are infected will help protect other people, but if you are not infected then it has no known protective effect ie. is not thought to be any more protective than not wearing one. Do you have any evidence to back up you talk of masks? (And if YOU are infected you should not be out anyway) Edit: I was thinking of non-medical situatio…

Seriously. How is it possible to still be ignorant about the (up to) 2 week asymptomatic incubation period? This is the entire reason why the virus is so dangerous!

And where did OP mention anything about masks protecting the carrier from infection?

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