Coronavirus: Why Can't We Do What China Did to Stop the Outbreak of COVID-19?

2020-09-22

As of September 22, the number of deaths due to the new Coronavirus in the world has been close to 1 million, and almost 10 months have passed since the first confirmed case of new Coronavirus was found in China. China has been well controlled and eliminated the outbreak and spread of the new Coronavirus. The new Coronavirus epidemic is still in an outbreak state in other countries around the world. The United States, India, and Brazil are still the three most severely affected countries in the world, and even India has a tendency to surpass the United States to become the world’s most severely affected country.

So the question is, why can’t our country control the spread of the new coronavirus like China used to do? People from different countries have different opinions, but many people can talk about the root cause of the problem.

Robin Daverman

world traveler

China’s organization is mostly like an engineering system. European countries and the United States are mostly run by amateurs and professional politicians with hobbies.

This is something that people have long known. Only in emergency situations can it prove whether such an arrangement is advantageous or disadvantageous.

For example, the Minister of Health in the United Kingdom is Matt Hancock. Well, how much does he know about health? He used to be a banker and later worked in the digital and media industries for a while. The Italian Minister of Health is Robertos Peranza majoring in political science. The head of the US Coronavirus Task Force is Vice President Pence, a conservative radio and TV talk show host.

The director of the China National Health Commission is Ma Xiaowei. He used to be a doctor and has also supervised hospitals. China’s construction department is led by a man who has worked in construction for 30 years, and the railway transportation department is led by a man who has built trains for 30 years. So basically these people can accomplish their tasks, right? The talks and promises will not have any impact on the virus, and effective action must be taken.

In Europe, these positions are mainly rewards for politicians. So they only do speeches and don’t do this work themselves. The other side of the coin is that Chinese ministers are often not good speakers. In fact, they don’t even use a language that the general public can understand, because their main audience is other professionals like them. So the problem of communication exists. The difference is that if he is a true technical expert and you are not, you will not understand what he is talking about, and then you say that he is a bad communicator, and I need to choose someone who I can understand. So you choose someone who you can fully understand, which solves the communication problem, but everything he says and everything he does is stupid…

David McKay

Lived in Sydney. Australia.

It all has to do with timing. When an opportunity is missed, it passes. Other countries could have done like China, and some countries are now trying to do it, but it is like locking the stable door before the horse escapes and locking the stable door after the horse escapes.

They kept telling us: “Not bad enough, not bad enough.” Sadly, even now, most countries still haven’t taken the measures taken by China seriously.

Let’s recap:

China quickly blocked the entire Wuhan. Then they sealed off the entire province. We did not lock down a country until a few months after the outbreak.
China promoted the role of masks and asked everyone to wear them, but we did not.
China built new hospitals in record time, but we did not.
China tested everyone, but we did not.
China enforces quarantine for every person with a fever in government facilities, but we have not.
The Chinese patrolled the streets and sprayed disinfectants everywhere, but we did not.

Robert Quek

Prior Employment in Finance Sector; B.soc.sc honours from National University of Singapore Graduated 1970; Lived in Singapore

What China has done in Hubei and Wuhan requires a lot of resources and trust in the government, allowing the people to accept discipline and sacrifice.

Resources include:

medical and sub-medical facilities, such as clinics, hospitals, laboratories, ambulances, testing facilities, quarantine and isolation personnel,
a large number of food and daily necessities logistics infrastructure, such as warehouses and transportation capabilities to store and distribute food and necessities,
A large number of medical and healthcare personnel at home supervise engineering auxiliary equipment, such as temperature measurement, contact tracking,
and many other unsung heroes, especially, clean people, disinfection day after day.

Poor countries will find it difficult to meet these requirements. They have to work with limited resources and hope to get some outside help.

Rich countries have no resource constraints. Even if there are defects in every field, they are fully capable of correcting them. The problem is that their leaders and the media spend a lot of time slandering China, saying that China’s actions are too harsh and are not conducive to human freedom. It even discredited those who recognized China’s anti-epidemic measures. Their leaders boasted and made people believe that this was a Chinese or Asian problem.

They mislead the people and are complacent, so they are unprepared for the disaster they are facing now. Contrary to their thinking, major western cities have implemented quarantine or blockades, and there is no sign of protest. People everywhere are the same. Once they realize the danger and accept the action taken to protect them, they will accept it, not die hard.

The United States is in a state of mystery. At the federal level, there are uncertainties about how to proceed. The state and city governments were more decisive and adopted measures such as isolation and social distancing. As more tests are carried out, the number of confirmed cases has risen sharply.

There seems to be disharmony among all levels of government in the United States, and they need to work together. The federal government needs to show and play a leadership role, rather than wasting energy on accusing and naming names. This matter should not be mixed into the November election.

Peter Elliott

B.Arch Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington-Architecture and Design Graduated 1997

We are not China. But I can’t help but think that many countries are completely powerless on this issue.

News article after news article announced the government’s courageous measures. All these measures seem to revolve around the economy. Among all these measures, where are the people doing epidemic prevention work?

China has solved the virus problem first, followed by the impact on the economy. Only after the virus is brought under control will it take measures to stimulate the economy. I think time will tell which method works better.

Mike Neville

Studied at Dawson College; Lives in Canada

Some countries can and have done this.

For example, South Korea came to my mind. But in Western countries, citizens have so-called “rights”, and they don’t have to listen to the government.

Robert Grenader

Landscape Photographer at the moment; Bachelor of RTS from University of Southern California Graduated 1976; Lives in Hollywood, CA

We are currently doing this. Due to poor leadership, we started two months late.

Antonio Costa

MS Technical University of Munich Graduated 1973; Lived in Alicante, Spain

Because the virus increases its toxicity by passing it from one person to another (infectious disease) Strength and pathogenicity, which means that the pathogenicity of the original virus is much lower than what we are facing now.

Pawel Lipski

**International photography coach; Lives in Zürich **

Because our government is too slow and indecisive, and because our citizens do not have enough discipline to do what we are told to do.