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EU Medicine United States

While Europe Accounts for 46% of COVID-19 Cases, Taiwan Goes 200 Days Without a Local Infection (go.com) 305

Europe "now accounts for 46% of global coronavirus cases," reports ABC News, "and nearly a third of total related deaths." Dr. Jean-Francois Delfraissy, a senior French physician and the president of the scientific council that reports to the government, warned that the country has "lost control of the epidemic," after health authorities reported more than 52,000 new cases. He said that the council estimates that the true figure could well be closer to 100,000 daily cases, accounting for asymptomatic cases and those who haven't been tested...

Fearing both the economic price of national lockdowns and the political backlash from citizens increasingly wearied of the restrictions on their livelihoods, government officials around Europe have been reluctant to shutter businesses to the extent that they did in the spring.

The Guardian reports that Apple "will temporarily close 17 of its 20 stores in France from Oct. 30, as the country goes into a fresh one-month lockdown due to a resurgence of coronavirus cases."

Meanwhile, CNN reports that Taiwan "just marked its 200th consecutive day without a locally transmitted case of the disease," due partly to mass testing but also quick and effective contact tracing. Taiwan's landmark achievement comes in a week when France and Germany are enacting new lockdowns and the United States identified a record 88,000-plus cases in a day. The state of Florida, which has a similar population size to Taiwan, with approximately 21 million people, identified 4,188 cases on Wednesday alone.
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While Europe Accounts for 46% of COVID-19 Cases, Taiwan Goes 200 Days Without a Local Infection

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  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday October 31, 2020 @10:38AM (#60668778)
    "Europe" has 750 million people compared to the US's 328 million. The countries above the US [npr.org] are the ones that either tried to ignore it (looking at you Sweden) or got hit early with an older population (read:Italy).

    The Asian countries tended to do better because they had strong anti-pandemic procedures in place and their population wore masks. Vietnam in particular did something smart, they have Quarantine Hotels where you can go to get away from your family instead of staying home and giving it to them. Of course that costs money and stuff.
    • "Europe" has 750 million people compared to the US's 328 million. The countries above the US [npr.org] are the ones that either tried to ignore it (looking at you Sweden) or got hit early with an older population (read:Italy). "

      Russia and Ukraine is on the European list as well.
      Europe has 5,798,430 total active cases
      The Planet has 11,532,134 active cases.

    • Yes, Asians in general have done better. Culturally, they are more group think than the west, so are much more willing to wear masks, quarantine, etc. All that me me me of the west is a big negative during a pandemic. I am afraid the US is going to see a very dark couple of months. We are replicating the Spanish flu outbreak almost exactly.
      • by Camel Pilot ( 78781 ) on Saturday October 31, 2020 @11:32AM (#60668910) Homepage Journal

        Even worse we have a leader who has made wearing masks a sign of weakness and a political issue. His cult-like followers are listening and actively attacking local officials for trying to do the right thing. The US is in for a world of hurt this winter.

      • they're mostly homogeneous populations, lacking the large minority populations America has. This makes it easier for them to think of their fellow citizens as, well, fellow citizens and not "The Other", and in turn means they're not prone to being fooled into politicizing a public health issue like Americans (and the British) are.

        The anti-mask thing and the push to herd immunity are a thing because it created a clear divide for voters to pick sides on. This in turn is politically advantageous to a certa
    • We had entire summer to sort things out and get these and many other measures in place. That didn't happen. These days western societies are actively avoiding everybody getting behind a common goal and working in unison for it. I'd say it's a defense mechanism that was developed after WW2 and it totally works to prevent many massively stupid things. Unfortunately it doesn't come with an on off switch for when it actually is a good idea to cooperate as much as possible.
    • by Whateverthisis ( 7004192 ) on Saturday October 31, 2020 @12:39PM (#60669132)
      It's also incorrect to compare individual countries to the US because the US has a lot more territory, a different type of demographics, different types of border controls, etc.

      The virus doesn't care about nations, so why should we report that way? the US is made up of 50 different polities unified by a Federal government, so why should we report Spain and Germany differently but we combine New York and California with Vermont or Washington who have done exceptionally well in controlling their COVID outbreaks?

      This data keeps getting represented in ways that skews the perspective. It's almost faith based rather than data-driven.

    • Anecdote:. My boss, who is currently in Paris taking care of family, has been showing pictures of people elbow to elbow in cafes. So some cultures in Europe also seem to persist in maintaining their way of life, in spite of the dangers.

    • Yes, but Europe was their own worst enemy. They blocked America from coming in, but continued to allow many other nations that were doing as little as America to come in. As such, it was only a matter of time before Europe caught it again.

      There are only going to be 3 ways to stop this:
      1) vaccines
      2) isolation/localization of everybody.
      3) allow everybody to catch it, and ignoring the culling.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by TechnoCore ( 806385 )
      Looking at us Sweden? Posting a 3 months old link? USA is way above Sweden in death statistics now. We've basically flat-lined our deaths for the last 3 months.
      Here is the todays number (31 of October)

      ---> USA: 70.2 Covid deaths per 100k
      ---> Sweden: 58.3 Covid deaths per 100k


      And no, we didn't ignore it. We just choose to implement the actual guidelines for how to handle a pandemic, agreed upon by all EU countries years before Corona hit. Not our fault that all other countries failed to follow
    • by hey! ( 33014 )

      The single most important things to understand about this pandemic is that it moves mind-bogglingly fast, but anything you do about it will be slow to produce measurable results. This has several implications.

      First: comparing how two places stand at a single point in time can be misleading. If you compared France and the US at the beginning of August it would look like France had COVID licked but the US was sliding out of control. But France has been riding an exponential skyrocket since then and is cur

  • So (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Saturday October 31, 2020 @11:27AM (#60668892)

    The entire country of Taiwan has less infections than the White House. Think about that.

  • Meanwhile, in Utah (Score:4, Informative)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday October 31, 2020 @11:48AM (#60668952)

    On Friday, beginning at 2 PM and lasting 15 minutes, Utah sent out an emergency alert warning [cnn.com] about the soaring covid infections and hospitals being overwhelmed to every phone in the state.

    "State of Utah: COVID-19 is spreading rapidly. Record cases. Almost every county is a high transmission area. Hospitals are nearly overwhelmed," read the alert. "By public health order, masks are required in high transmission areas. Social gatherings are limited to 10 or fewer."

    In a press conference on Thursday, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert called the state's situation "one of the worst outbreaks in the country."

  • by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Saturday October 31, 2020 @12:34PM (#60669108)

    That's what this is.

    Take a complete 100% lockdown*, and in two weeks, the problem is gone.
    Take no action at all*, and soon, everbody not naturally immune is dead, and the problem is "gone" too.
    But take a half-assed middle ground to make everyone almost happy but not quite, cause they'd bash your head in otherwise, and you got this current dragged-out Bataan death march to the clusterfuck.

    What's a leader to do?

    This is the first time I actually get our politicians. (I'm not in the US.)
    Maybe because they stopped giving a crap about lobbyists.

    Personally, I'd run a temporary dictatorship and two weeks od 100% lockdown. Necessary deliveries free for everyone! Borders stay closed for humans until this is over. Kill me later, I don't care. At least I saved your stupid fucking certified insane ass.
    But given humanity's general effect, backing research on a perfect Covid successor would probably the morally wiser thing to do. (Yeah, kill me. Stop being in denial: We humans suck.)

    _ _ _
    * In both cases of course assuming 100% closed borders to anyone who isn't doing the same. (But letting through goods that are guaranteed to not carry any risk. Without the driver or truck!) Otherwise it's a waste of time.

    • 2 weeks lockdown only works if you are going to completely close the border for months after the lockdown. Otherwise you just get new infections into the country.
        No illegal aliens, no refugees from other countries, no foreign visitors, no US citizens allowed to travel outside the US and even no US Military returning home. You good with that?

    • by twms2h ( 473383 )

      How do you manage a 100% lockdown without people starving within a week? Even if you give people some time to prepare they won't be able to provision for 2 weeks without demand overwhelming food supply. Who is going to make those "necessary deliveries for free" you mention? People wearing bio-hazard gear? And for most countries with a direct border, you won't be able to keep it free of COVID-19 afterwards.

      I agree that in theory this would work. But it's nearly impossible to put it into practice.

  • Taiwan does very little testing. It tests 4278 per 1 M population, making it 183rd in the world in terms of testing.

    "due partly to mass testing" is just wrong.

    https://www.worldometers.info/... [worldometers.info]
    https://www.cdc.gov.tw/Bulleti... [cdc.gov.tw]

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